Legal and Viable Appeals
Fielders have the right to appeal any runner at any base he has reached or passed, at any time while the ball is alive, subject to the following restrictions:
- No live ball appeal may occur on a runner who misses home base (when not forced) and immediately attempts to correct his mistake; this runner must be tagged in order to be put out.
- When a running infraction occurs and then all playing action becomes relaxed, any live ball appeal must occur before the next pitch, play, or attempted play. An appeal itself does not count as an attempted play for the purposes of subsequent appeals.
- Once a fielder properly executes a legal live ball appeal on a runner, that runner may not again be appealed at that base, even if the appeal is for a different reason.
An appeal is legal if the fielder
- has the right to appeal a runner at a base,
- clearly communicates to the umpire what the infraction was, and
- tags the runner or base in question with a live ball.
Umpires will only rule on legal appeals. A potential appeal is viable if the appeal is legal and the umpire knows that the runner has indeed committed an infraction and will be called out if the appeal is executed by a fielder.
Read more about this topic: Appeal Play
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