[RANDY IN INDY]

In the travel baseball that my son plays, you have to make an effort to slide at home plate in every case. No running over the catcher, period. We had some contact a couple of weeks ago when the catcher of the other team was 6 feet up the line, without the ball, in the baseline. One of our kids took him out, and was called out for not making an attempt to slide. My argument was the kid was in the baseline, without the ball and if the runner would have attempted to slide, he would have had to start the slide 9 feet from home plate and would have no chance of getting there. I hate the rule, because it has allowed catchers to come out and block the plate in a way that you have no chance of scoring with a slide and they have no fear of any contact.