maven

Might have had both in that case. maven

OK. They blew it.

Some fields have no lines in the outfield, and it can be difficult for a BU to judge F/F with no line. You want to pre-game this adjustment to standard 2-umpire mechanics, but it is a common one. If he just wants to make all the calls, ask him to take the whackers at 1B while he's at it.

Absolutely, if he thought it was a lie to fudge the rule. maven, are you siding with the crew here? In the thread overall, no, just suspending judgment because I don't know their rationale for their ruling. In what you quote, I'm answering the question about Scoscia, which doesn't imply siding with the crew.

I wouldn't get too worked up about it. First, the video might not be showing everything. Second, MLB might think Dickey gets away with this move too much, and so have directed umpires to watch for it and nail anything in the vicinity. Figuring out one call here on this tiny, technical balk won't make any of us better for the games we work.

Absolutely, if he thought it was a lie to fudge the rule.

In our area, this mechanic is discouraged.

How can you possibly know they blew it? There's an escape clause in the rule for injury. If skip says his guy is injured, and everyone in the park knows it's BS, what are you gonna do? And how do you know what anybody said, except what was reported in the paper?

Yeah, he had him a lil hitch in his giddyup.

I had a twitchy, just-up-from-JV F1 yesterday in my game. Game was in hand the other way, so I didn't hear about it. Ugh. I'm glad I don't have to call such balks.

"The umpires are supposed to make these calls, not the commissioner's office." Good call.

1. Blanket rule? I guess: it's the MC rule. 2. I seldom see it. 3. As your post points out, it is not difficult to run through 1B correctly. If F3's foot is to the side of the base, leaving nearly all of it for the BR to hit, running over F3's foot is pretty good evidence of intent. But you've got to SEE it to call it. 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.