maven

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.

This. ^ A lot to see on this play, but Mike's right, you have to prioritize. Get the F/F first, since nothing will matter if the ball is hit foul. If you read an obviously fair ball (slowing down 4 feet inside the line, you could swing around to the POP to prepare for the play at the plate and give yourself a little glance up the 3BL for R2's touch. If the ball is rolling down the line, do the best you can from 1BLX.

What should have happened? R1 should have frozen on the line drive and gotten back to the base before F4 could double him off. Oh, you mean the umpires! Well, both of those calls belonged to BU (assuming by "P4" you mean F4, the second baseman). He made his calls, inning over. PU needs to keep his mouth shut unless asked and get ready for the next inning. Some guys wonder why their games are 3 hours long....

What?!? Are you sure? I was just practicing that in the mirror over the weekend. /facetious

Well, then we're all in violent agreement. How nice.

That's a clumsy name for an excellent concept! AND: your explanation meets my 5-word limit! Outstanding, sir!

As I've posted in another thread, this is not at all what we teach. Make a ruling and announce it. "Catch!" if you judge that F2 caught the pitch, otherwise, safe mechanic and "No catch!" Give the players from both teams a fair opportunity to play based on your ruling.

I understand your frustration. Here are a couple ideas: First, this guy clearly knows the rule (or thinks he does), so explaining the rule to him isn't the problem. I mean, you COULD have a running lane violation on a throw from F6, if the BR runs WAY inside fair territory so that he runs BETWEEN F6 and F3, making no effort at all to touch 1B. (That's probably garden-variety runner INT, but never mind). So rather than tell him more about the rule, focus instead on case plays. The case plays present paradigms or exemplars of correct enforcement, and all the paradigms of RLI have the throw coming from the plate area/direction. That's what to look for when enforcing the rule. Second, a background assumption that some guys have is that all collisions are somehow or other the result of illegal action by somebody. So if they observe a collision, they go fishing. Rather than talking them out of applying the rule in this case, focus instead on the assumption, which as you know is false. Sometimes a collsion results from illegal action (OBS or INT), but sometimes it doesn't (train wreck). If R2 is trying to avoid F2 on a play at the plate, the throw takes F2 right into his path, and they collide after F2 catches the throw, then you could have a hilacious collision that's just a train wreck. On the field, a good idea in unusual circumstances is to talk through what you saw with your partner, in order to give yourself a moment to collect your thoughts, think through the rules (OBS? INT? MC? runs score? etc.), and arrive at the correct ruling. Good luck!

The MLB'ers have a lot to contend with, and the pro game is different in indefinitely many ways from the amateur game. I can't presume to say that allowing Fielder to turn back around to bark was wrong — for all I know, Fielder's reputation with the umpires is that he never complains, and so he has earned the slack. Now, Bryce Harper on the other hand....

That's only a very small part of what the rule says, and not at all what it means.

When the runner gets past the fielder who "tagged" him, I would signal safe and verbalize, "No tag!" You are correct: a play was made on the runner (tag attempt), and the umpire should have ruled on it. The verbal clarifies the rationale for the safe mechanic.

No, and OBS is more likely in the play you're describing. 8.3.2k