maven

Prolly Probably came down with a touch of the flu after 4 warm-up pitches... maven

Yeah, that's what I thought. Stupid defense... maven

OK, here's what happened: I was PU. Since the runner never headed back to 2B (stupid defense), I never had the opportunity to tell BU I was in position. But he saw me there, and saw the play right in front of me. Before making a call, I looked at him, saw his "You got this, right?" expression, so I took it. Since it was a pretty easy out call, no complaints. We were fortunate: if that runner had been safe or the play had been closer, it could have been a mess. maven

JM: which I'd said that. I think I would have kept my fonts the same size, though.

I guess I don't see the worry. Why would F1 disengage on a safety squeeze? He steps off when he sees the runner go. A balk after disengaging is unlikely here: since F1 may legally feint to HP, why would he throw unless for the purpose of making a play or (FED) driving the runner back?

FED awards are at least 1 base from last legally touched. I'm not sure those runners are going any farther.

bam: newer umpire, are you? maven

You've heard of Photoshop, right? I can make video do spooky things...

Mike, that's my point If they're going to USE THE TECHNOLOGY....freaking USE THE TECHNOLOGY! There's a problem there: each team's broadcaster has its own truck and can enhance the video as it likes. It would raise fairness issues to use the feed from one team's truck and not the other. It's certainly possible to add the video gear to each stadium to get a "neutral" enhancement; but then you have to pay for it, find a place for it, pay the crew to operate it, etc. So far, it hasn't been worth that expense.

The enhancements are done in the truck by the broadcast crews. That feed never comes back into the park, except to the broadcast booth.

They see the un-enhanced replay, the first one you saw in the clip, which is not decisive. The A's broadcasters couldn't tell from that video either.

Here's a play that happened in one of my games last week. Rundown between 2B and 3B, no other runners. PU hustles down to 3B to help, and as he arrives, the runner turns to head toward 3B. The defense keeps running him there (not the standard play). PU is waiting till he turns to head to 2B to announce that he has 3B, but that never happens. The runner slides into 3B and is tagged near the base, pretty clearly out, right in front of PU. Quiz for newer umpires: what happened next? What should have happened?

Hard to tell whether the runner was blocked off the plate, as we don't have the usual camera angles on the play. It certainly appears he got to the plate before the tag, but without knowing whether he touched it, it's impossible to assess the call. Now the guy who COULD see... made the call. Good positioning.

Let me first answer the question you meant to ask: a good breaking ball can be a tough pitch to call under the best of circumstances, since it's moving in all 3 dimensions. But then one that's up and in can add 2 additional issues: the batter might be bailing, and the catcher might be coming up in front of you. What a mess. Use all the information you can, and be slow, slow, slow to make the call. All that info takes time for your brain to process, so allow for that. By all means use the mitt, adjusting for the break on the pitch. The batter and catcher need to stay in their spots to help you. If the batter's bailing, the zone gets bigger. If F2 blocks your view, it's a ball. Don't go crazy with that, but they positioning is crucial to your capacity to call a pitch. Once I have the position of the pitch, my rule of thumb is to allow F1 to miss a little in one direction but not two: a little inside but not high, or a little up but over the heart of the plate — those are strikes. But both up and in, ball. This applies to the question you actually asked, too, namely about the backdoor curve. That breaks over the outside corner, and again you must use the position of the mitt to help with that pitch. In general, you'll get more grief for calling too high than any other part of the zone. Everyone wants the low strike and a wide zone. Hope that helps!

No, not if he has first legally disengaged. Absolutely. All umpires must know the status of the ball (pitched, batted, or thrown) at all times. No reason to look at R3, as nothing will happen to him until he reaches the plate area.

7.3.5 SITUATION G: With no outs and F1 in the set position, R1, who is on third base, attempts to steal home. F1 legally steps backward off the pitcher's plate and throws home. B2 hits the ball. RULING: Typically, batter's interference is a delayed dead ball in order to give the defense an opportunity to make an out on the initial putout attempt. Since the batter hit the ball, the defense was not afforded an opportunity to make a play. Therefore, the ball is declared dead immediately. R1 is out because of B2's interference. (5-1-2a, 7-3-5, 8-4-2l)

Umpire INT by the BU can occur only on a batted ball, and only when the batted ball, not a fielder, contacts him while inside. No exceptions. maven

If he wasn't advancing, then he wasn't obstructed. Talk partner off that one, maybe. maven

That's helpful: the hindrance there wasn't even deviation, just slowed him down a fraction. Good call.

Contact is not required for OBS. A fielder without the ball has no right to be between a runner and a base. Since you judged that the runner had to deviate to go around a fielder without the ball, the ruling should have been OBS. FED (all OBS) and OBR (Type A), he should have been awarded 2B.

Sounds like a coach just learned a rule.

29. False 2-19-1 42. True 3.3.1 HH 82. True 2-21-1b (treating a retired/scored runner as no longer a runner) 103. True FEDUM p. 8 110. False FEDUM passim

While I share this concern and advise newer umpires to enforce the rules limiting non-playing time, I don't think the worry necessarily comes into play here. The new F1 gets his warm-up pitches, and that takes some time. Within limits, I don't care what the other fielders are doing during that time, but they WILL be done with it when we're ready to go.

FED 10.2.3 prohibits batting balls to warm up fielders while F1 warms up. Throwing a ball around the infield is legal. If R1 doesn't move, the BU should invite him to step aside.

Agree: throw was in the dirt, not good enough to merit a RLI call in OBR, esp. pro ball.