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you remember that old drivers ed test of pulling 2 objects together by strings until they were exactly even that i heard about from the old days to check depth perception. sounds like depth perception may have been off. if that is your first and only time with that issue you are living amongst the baseball gods and out of most peoples leagues. instead of moving straight up in the exact same path the ball is taking, you might want to go more towards the side to get more of some type of "angle" on the ball hit to right center if possible, and not get straightlined so to speak, like on a play at first with the foot. many times fielders dont like that ball straight at them, they want it a little on one side or the other. and sometimes crapola just happens and you kick the crap out of the play as jim joyce said. at least your miss was a 1-0 game and not a possible historical making call like Joyce's was, as he so aptly described it himself, with humility. and joyce was a pitcher himself collegiately in the same conference at the same time with Orel Hershiser.

In this particular situation, I knew he was in no position to give help. If I appease the coach, and come back with the same conclusion, two things can happen....A, the coach knows my partner had no look and it throws more gas on the fire, or B, now he believes BOTH umpires got the call wrong. I chose to own my calls. This does not mean I'll never go for help but not this time.

We've had some threads before about "long sleeves under short sleeves". It used to be anathema. At upper levels I still espouse no long sleeves under short sleeves for cold weather. Use a long sleeve shirt for the plate and jacket on the base (current fashion being an untucked jacket). For our young impoverished HS umps we don't care what they use to keep warm. But any long sleeve shirt available now is not built for warm weather and probably would not look good if designed to wick and protect the arms. I believe I have posted before about the proper color that an assignor would like such as skin tone like beige but the best solution was posted if I recall by @MadMax which was the various recent MLB sidepanel shirts with a side panel color matching long sleeve. Whose assignor would not allow that?

In that particular situation, there is not much more you can do. We often don't work in the pristine conditions of MLB umpires. The lighting, field conditions, weather conditions, often affect our games. That's a long way for a human to see the flight of a small off white ball. The only thing I can see that could have been done differently is that your partner could have gone out on that ball. IMO, it's a good idea in that situation for your partner to read this as a trouble ball and go out. I'm in no way faulting you or your partner. I'm not even sure you could have got a better angle on a ball hit like that, either. We just have to do the best we can. It's really hard to see a ball hit over a chain link fence, especially at that distance. Maybe wait a tick before calling a 2 base award? See the actions of the fielders first? If they don't throw their hands up, then use that information to your advantage. And yes, I've had trouble with balls hit over chain link fences. Don't beat yourself up.

Absolutely. And it didn't take me 30 years to have it happen 😂