Over sliding the bag

What's your rule reference for a player going past the bag?

Did the runner lift his leg in order to spike the third baseman, or was it just a hard slide and the contact was a result of that?

In my opinion, the baserunner was inexperienced and simply slid too late.  The leg was not high.   Nevertheless, the contact was significant.  (The third baseman went down immediately.  Thankfully, he was not hurt.)  Had this been part of a double play,  I could have called interference and awarded an out.   Here, however,  the only remedy seemed to be an ejection,  which seemed extreme.

The key word is Malicious Contact is "malicious." Contact by itself isn't cause for an ejection or any penalty at all. If the player isn't doing something toward another player without regard for the game, it's probably not malicious.

A runner colliding with a catcher who has suddenly stepped into their path isn't being malicious. A player that sees a catcher standing in their path but continues on and intentionally collides with him is. Same result, but the intent is different.

It doesn't sound like this was anything other than a poorly executed slide that resulted in a collision. Reckless, perhaps, but not malicious.

There is a difference between playing hard, playing cluelessly and playing maliciously.  This sounds, to me, like the base runner was either coming in hard (good hustle!) or didn't understand how/when to properly slide.  Since it is not a force play, I'd be very upset as a coach if you dumped my player on this play.  Hard play happens, it is part of the game.  Hard play does not always (and usually doesn't) equal malicious play.

One point of information that should help our officials.  I've noticed that a lot of players who are not familiar with playing on turf fields tend to overslide bags often.  So far this summer, we've played at Santa Rosa Jr. College and Delta College, both turf fields, and it is common to see players sliding beyond bags, as you glide faster and more easily on turf than on grass.  We've actually taken to telling the umpires that we're playing college slide rule rather than high school slide rule when on turf fields, precisely because players unfamiliar with turf need time to adjust to it.  If you're working a game on a turf field, this might be something to keep in mind.

For what I read on this play, I find nothing "malicious" on the base runner coming to third and colliding with the third baseman. Furthermore, I do not see any intention on this slide to knock the third baseman standing on the line fielding a high throw, as the base runner is more preocupied for sliding safely into third, than trying "maliciously" to knock the third baseman out of the way. Even though he passed the bag by about a foot, the base runner is safe, and no ejection is merited. Well done, Mike.
Manuel Provedor

I would like to give you another perspective from an ex-player and coach. As a player I ran well and ran bases agressively. Every time I slid i never tried to stop at the base, I always tried to slide through it unless it was on a double play in amateur baseball. There where several reasons I did this; the first was to get to the base as quick as possible, the second was to have momentum so if the ball was overthrown I could get up faster and advance to the next base, the third was if the player went to block the base while accepting the throw, which is legal, I could slide through him and reach the base if need be, possibly knocking the ball loose.
In my opinion the only time a base runner should not over-slide a base is when they are in a double play situation. Every other time there momentum should carry them through the base. This is not malicious this is just good sound baserunning taught at all levels of baseball.
Because people go down or get hurt in baseball does not mean someone has done something wrong. Sometimes it is just hard fundamental baseball and that is the way the game should be played in my opionion.