Savin Hillbilly said:
In fairness to wolfe, I think DDB's quote completely and emphatically confirms his point, and if you want to say the phrase "unwritten rule" doesn't apply to what's described there I think you're arguing semantics. The gist of the quote is that umpires have traditionally called plays based primarily on what they see, but additionally and importantly on what they know about the expectations of the participants. Since the rule book says nothing about this latter part, it's certainly an unwritten something or other....call it an "unwritten secondary criterion" if you want, but let's stop talking as if wolfe is just making up shit, because a pretty good authority has just been quoted resoundingly to the contrary.
DDB's quote also strongly implies that the practice is one of a fall-back nature based on positioning and an umpire's ability to see the actual outcome of a play. It is not nor was it ever a tacit approval to make incorrect calls based solely on the execution of one aspect of the play as wolfe tried to frame it. If the umpire is in position to see that the runner successfully avoided the tag, then he's going to call the runner safe based on that fact. Wolfe would have you believe that the runner is supposed to be called out regardless of whether the tag was applied at all, solely on the basis of the ball arriving in time.