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basically this has allowed a try out situation in Major League Regular Season games for supervisors to scout, rather than just scouting umpires in a AAA MiLB situation/environment and a more relaxed Spring Training situation/environment due to the 1979 contract that started letting umpires have 1 then 2 and now 4 weeks of vacation time. Layne was the last to go FT right from MiLB, the same year, 1989, that Hohn went but Hohn had worked call up in 1987 and 1988. Of course 2 weeks and sometimes 3 weeks in a season in the replay booth has now allowed the on field games to drop to 114 or 121 games, so at most 30 plate jobs a year for FT versus 40 prior to 1979.

Assuming the SB rule is the same as the BB rule: 1) This isn't "tangle / untangle" -- that can only happen in the immediate vicinity of home plate and nearly immediately after B becomes BR. 2) It appears to me that F5 was the protected fielder. So, BR would be out for INT.

Discharged from PT today. Look out players, this blue is coming back

The following soapbox moment isn't directed at you, @TheLovejoy ... your statement simply triggered me: Really, I do not care if you (or anybody) takes the skullcap off with the mask, or leaves it on. It doesn't matter a hill of beans... or even a small pile... or even a handful... or even the Himalayas of beans! They likely have their reasons, whether that be conscious or unconscious awareness, it does not matter. I'm of the qualified belief (thru investigation) that MLBUs keep their masks far too way too much too tight because there is a behind-the-curtain protocol involving the insurance lawyers and underwriters – that if an umpire's mask hits the ground, it can no longer be used (reliably), and that any subsequent claims of injury will be scrutinized, contested, and possibly denied. That's a valid position. Those guys aside, what does matter is that we – collectively – must keep what dwindling numbers of umpires we have active and healthy, and we must find ways of attracting, recruiting, engaging, and retaining a new generation of umpires. If that means they opt for wearing skullcaps, of any sort or brand, who cares? If that means that they wear a HSM 🤨 cuz that's what they're familiar with (being a former HS catcher), who cares? If that means they find and use a... <gulp> Wilson Gold 🤢... that they got from PIAS, who cares? If that means they use the side-shot instead of the hammer, who cares? If that means that they wear an 8-stitch instead of a 6-stitch on the bases, who cares? Who freakin' cares?! They're working, dammit!! What does not matter is some "evaluator's" opinion that <this> is a "bad look". Or, that <this> gold belt buckle on a polished leather belt is the mark of a "better" umpire. Or, flippantly telling a guy, "You'll never make it as an umpire if you don't do <this> in <this way>". Keyboard Crusaders will always drop derisive comments on guys, simply because they can... and they're cantankerous and have a burr up their a$$. The guys that get my goat are those that sit or stand aloof and "take notes", and the bulk of what "issues they have to address" with the guys that actually worked (that game) boil down to "style". I'll tell you something, this latest/next generation – they are craving feedback and review, and (this is important) they crave self-expression, or at least learning / accomplishing something in their own way. It's part of their identity. They do not want to do things simply because "that's the way we've been doing it for 30 years", especially – and this is critical – if you yourself don't model what you're saying, or someone else who is idolized (or held aloft) as a "gold" standard is himself fallible or does things that amount to, yet again, personal style. So sittin' there, telling a new umpire, "Yeah, you gotta leave your skullcap on, cuz it's a bad look" ain't gonna hold water, ya putz.