miss first base

Question
Situation: ground ball in infield. Br beats the throw to first base, but misses the bag. Is the runner out or must the defense appeal even though they caught the ball and touched first base? How would the infield/first base umpire rule on this? If he saw that the runner arrived first, but missed the bag would he rule safe, out or no call pending an appeal by the defense?  

Answer
Hi Jim,

By rule the runner is considered to have touched the base if they pass 1st base before the ball arrives, any appeal must be made prior to the runner returning to 1st while the ball is alive.

As far as an umpire signal, we usually don't give a safe signal at 1st on a play that calls itself such as the b-r 2 or 3 steps beyond the base when the ball arrives, at best we'll give a hand only signal as the sign.

In the case of the b-r only slightly past the base I would as the umpire hesitate slightly and if no immediate appeal is made give a safe signal, hand only. (as we would do if a runner misses home plate and the catcher misses the tag and no immediate effort is made to try to tag the runner) Then if it is appealed before the b-r returns and the ball is still alive, we can rule on the appeal then.

Mark