Baseball rule question

[Seattle Slew]

In the Red Sox game Tuesday, remember the play where Youkalis juggled the pop fly down the first base line. When it first hit his glove, the runner on third took off for home. If Youklis caught it after the juggle, would the runner had been out at third for leaving before he had control of the ball?

Or can he tag when the fielder touches the ball?

[rjt721]

The runner can take off as soon as the fielder touches the ball. So, in this particular case, if Youkilis had eventually held onto the ball and Gutierrez been halfway down the line, he wouldn't need to go back and tag up if/when Youk finally did catch the ball, as long as he was touching 3rd when Youk first made contact with the ball.

Smart play by Gutierrez .... a lot of players probably wouldn't have known the rule.

[Seattle Slew]

I had no clue about that rule. Thanks for the info.

[MrX]

Imagine if the rule was that the runner couldn't tag until the fielder had control of the ball. Imagine a walk-off situation with a runner at third and less than 2 outs. Deep fly ball. Of course the correct play for the outfielder would be to "bobble" the ball all the way to the infield and then gain control so that no tag would be possible.

Personally, I think it would be great fun to watch, and I'm in favor of a rule change.