Shoe Polish rule?

[Tksjewelry]

I had an assistant coach tonight swear up, down, and sideways, that a pitch that hits dirt before hitting a batter, then it's just a ball because of the shoe Polish rule. (he wasn't a jerk about it, just swears its a real thing) Anyone ever heard of this thing before? I chuckled at him and told him that no where in the rules book does it say anything about shoe Polish and a hit by pitch is a hit by pitch. Head Coach just laughed and told me to ignore the ex college player/lawyer.

 

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[Gfoley4]

 going to guess this is it

[stkjock]

LOL! What baseball shoe uses polish in this day and age. 

[LRZ]

More OT, in response to the clip: when I started umpiring, one assigner had us wear white shirts and ties, with black pants. 

[Umpire in Chief]

Never heard of that one.

[Senor Azul]

There are two famous “shoeshine incidents” and they both took place in a World Series game and they both involved players named Jones. Thanks to Mr. Gfoley4 for providing video of the second incident and here is text from Wikipedia about the first one.

Nippy Jones is remembered for being involved in a controversial "Shoeshine incident" in the 1957 Series, that would be repeated twelve years later by Cleon Jones in the 1969 World Series. Jones pinch hit in games one and three of the 1957 World Series, grounding out both times. Both of which games were also won by the Yankees. Game four went into extra innings, and when the Yankees took a 5–4 lead in the tenth, the Braves were looking at the possibility of falling three games to one in the series.

Jones led off the Milwaukee half of the tenth inning, pinch hitting for Warren Spahn. He jumped back from a low pitch that home plate umpire Augie Donatelli called a ball. Jones protested that it had hit his foot, and he was awarded first base after showing Donatelli a shoe polish mark on the ball to prove it. Yankees manager Casey Stengel vehemently protested the call, but to no avail. The Braves scored three runs in the tenth, including a two-run home run by Eddie Mathews to end the game and even the series at two games apiece. The play was the turning point in the series, as the Braves went on to win the series in seven games.

[Tksjewelry]

What's funny is that coach totally buffed the meaning of it anyways. The shoe Polish was to prove he got hit, not anything to do with hitting the dirt before hitting the batter. Awe coaches... They make life entertaining.

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[basejester]

[Mudisfun]

I love watching these old clips...

Working the slot? What is the slot? 

[LMSANS]

9 hours ago, Mudisfun said:

I love watching these old clips...

Working the slot? What is the slot? 

Outside protector you don't do the slot.

 

[johnnyg08]

There's no such rule...but there have been a couple of foul ball and HBP over the years where on MLB baseball which are pretty clean were seen to have polish on them and ruled accordingly. 

NOW...at the levels we work, we have dirty baseballs AND in the thousands of players I've seen over the years, zero of them polish their shoes. 

Make your call with confidence and stick with it. 

[Mudisfun]

On 5/2/2017 at 6:49 PM, LMSANS said:

Outside protector you don't do the slot.

 

Funny... I read a document the other day on working with a pillow and it stated get into the slot. Either or... I just like watching the evolution of our craft from generation to generation.

[catsbackr]

If you don't work the slot with the raft, you're putting your head in the Kill Zone.

[JHSump]

I've heard it said that when using the raft you don't set up in the slot. Bur when working the slot with a RHB so so many fouls zip past the right size of my head (and vice versa for LHBs). If I were directly over the plate, raft or not, I'd be hit in the mask over and over again. By now I'd be a vegetable. How did umpires survive back in the day?

Oh, on the clip, how in the world did the ball fly off to the right, as seen from behind HP, if it did not hit Cleon Jones? And I seem to remember Gil Hodges saying he was fishing when he brought up the shoe polish thing to the PU. There just happened to be a mark on the ball and Hodges got lucky. Shoe polish? Ha! In reality, PU might have realized his mistake and used Hodge's question to correct it.