In the play where Jones advances from first to third, misses second base, and remains on third when the throw from the outfield goes into the dugout, which ruling is correct?

• A. Jones cannot legally return to his missed base and is subject to being declared out upon proper and successful appeal.
• B. The umpire is to immediately declare Jones out for missing second base.
• C. Because Jones missed second base, he cannot be awarded home from the errant throw to the dugout.
• D. If Jones attempts to return to second base, the defense cannot appeal his missing second until Jones has completed his opportunity to correct the mistake.

Answer: (A)

When a baserunner misses a base, the defense has a legitimate way to enforce that miss: a proper appeal. The runner must touch the missed base at some point after passing it, and the defense can appeal by handing the ball to the umpire or by touching the missed base with the ball while the runner is off that base. The key idea is that a missed base isn’t automatically cured by the play continuing or by a thrown ball going somewhere else; the runner isn’t free to “fix” the mistake on his own without the defense’s correct appeal being made and ruling.

In this scenario, Jones has moved from first to third and has not touched second. He ends up on third as the outfield throw goes into the dugout, so the ball becomes dead, but the missed-base issue remains. The defense can still properly appeal by taking the ball and touching second base; if the appeal is successful, Jones is out for missing second. The ball going into the dugout does not grant him a safe return or automatically score him, and a missed base is enforced by a proper appeal.

So the correct ruling is that Jones cannot legally return to his missed base and is subject to being declared out on a proper and successful appeal. The other options rely on automatic calls or on preventing the appeal in ways that the rules do not support, or they misstate how an appeal interacts with the ball entering the dugout.