Slide or surrender (also known as "slide or yield", "slide or avoid contact" and "mandatory slide rule") is a rule used in little league baseball and recreational softball to denote the choice a baserunner has as a play is approaching the base. It requires the baserunner to either slide or give himself up as he approaches the base.
While the design of the rule is to avoid a full-on collision between baserunner and fielder, it has proven to create more controversy as it is within the umpire's judgment as to whether the baserunner has willfully and adequately sacrificed himself. It becomes even more difficult based on the speed of the play, direction of incoming throws and fragility of the fielder - some players may interpret contact with a fielder to be more egregious than other players would. While it is the responsibility of the runner to decide to slide, it is incumbent on the rest of the runner's team to tell him to slide as they have much better view of the play and can tell him to slide if needed.
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