Chip

On 60 foot you need to be outside to be able to see if a runner leaves early. But you don't need to be on outfield grass either.

It's one thing to call them out if they kick a call or don't know the rules, but who cares where they have their ball bag or what their strike mechanic looks like?

I'm with Rich. How many times have we all watched the game from the stands and tried to figure out exactly what call was being made and why? Sure, we have a better idea because we think about the situations in a different way than the average fan (or announcer), but there are still times when it's not easy to know exactly what transpired. On the play in question, it was more likely to be a leaving early appeal than a hidden ball trick, so it's hard to fault them for looking at the play from that perspective. After all, the play is called a "trick" for a reason...

I'm glad he called INT here. It's amazing how often it seems major league batters "accidentally" fall across home plate after a swing when there's a runner stealing.

If you were going to warn him off to help him save himself ... and I'm not saying Fairchild should have in this case ... you wouldn't want to pull the mask off. That would have come off as deliberately confrontational and contrary to the notion of deescalation. And then it probably leads to an EJ anyway.

Talk about planning ahead. They must have had some great foresight to write a ground rule about the center fielder breaking his arm!

If the fielder had tumbled over the fence and out of play, would you redo the play? How about if he trips over a sprinkler head and twists his ankle badly enough that he can't get up right away? No. While it is unfortunate the fielder got stuck, the gate didn't reach out and interfere with him so it seems to me you let the play unfold, then call time once action has stopped in order to free him.

Whatever he said must have been a doozy since he wasn't animated and was doing nothing to show Fairchild up. Without knowing what was said, it is impossible to know if an EJ was the right call, but you have to assume it was a personal invective to go that fast.

To me, the most important thing is to get the call right. If I end up with some egg on my face, so be it. Hopefully I learn from it and put myself in a better position next time. Steadfastly insisting on a call I think might be wrong and could be quickly and easily fixed just so I don't have another call questioned later in the game doesn't make sense to me.

If BU didn't have an angle, as you say was the case on the first play, why not go for help? Seems the admonition to "get it right" applies. Agree you shouldn't go for help just because a coach asks, but if I somehow end up out of position and have reasonable doubt, I have no problem checking with my partner to find out if he saw something I didn't. That said, I wouldn't overturn my original call unless my partner was certain and gave me info I didn't have.

If the catcher can move 15 feet to pick up the ball, surely the batter can move more than 1 foot to get out of the way. He only needs to see where the catcher runs to figure out how not to be on a line between the catcher and the plate. Unless it is t-ball, the batter can do better to avoid INT than what is described in the OP.

It sounds like you are describing the fungo circles where coaches stand to hit practice balls to fielders, not the on deck circles.