Two places at once

[MPLSMatt]

Another one man gaffe last night... R3, 1 out,  pop up toward 1b dugout.  I hustle over with the play to make sure the catch is made in live ball territory (its close to DBT).  F1, F2 and F3 all converge on ball.  F2 catches the ball in LBT.  I have my back to the runner watching the catch, but realizing what is happening, I quickly look toward 3rd to ensure R3 hasn't left early and hustle to cover a play at the plate (F5 is busting in to cover the plate).  As I hustle to cover the plate I hear "he dropped the ball!!!"   I look and hall is rolling around...  Well, sh*t... 

 

I reemphasize out and make the pulling the ball out sign.  DHC wants to chat (I knew this was coming) and asks what I had.  I told him "I clearly saw a catch and then I turned to follow the runner.  He had control before I turned to follow the runner, I've got to stick with the out."  

 

He said that "he didn't drop it on the transition."

 

Me: "Brad, the last thing I saw was the catch and I've got to stick with that."  

 

He was OK with it, but the fans creamed me.   The truth is, I have no idea how the ball came out.  It probably wasn't voluntary release so its probably a no catch, but I can't call that given that I have no idea how the ball came out and he absolutely did catch it at one point.  So yeah - I think I kicked it but had no way of fixing it.  

 

On the flip side, unlike the last error (in the straight lined thread), I focused extremely hard after this and didn't look for makeup calls and got things back under control.  Just not happy I missed the call. 

 

Where'd I go wrong here?  Thanks!

[Mad Mike]

How close to the fielders were you? Could you have positioned yourself a little wider, sacrificing distance for a good angle while keeping R3 in your peripheral vision while watching the catch? 

 

In this instance, the most important job is to rule on the catch first and the tag-up second. You should be able to still rule on the catch and glance to determine if the runner left too early. 

 

Just surmising, but from your description it seems like you turned away from the catch a little early.

[MPLSMatt]

Yeah, my thought is that I should have stayed with the catch completely.  The problem is that the catch was right at the 1b dugout, within a foot of the dugout fence (and DBT near the dugout) so there was really no way to get into a position where I saw both short of literally running around the play to the 1st base side of it, which was impossible (the ball wasn't hit 80 feet into the air).  I pretty much had to take it with my back toward the 3rd base.  Perhaps I could have put my right shoulder right against the fence so I was 90 degrees from third (watch the catch and then turn over my left shoulder to see third), but either way, it took more than a glance.  Really though, I just think that I assumed too much (that he caught it so nothing else was going to happen) and should've stayed with the catch for the catch until there was a voluntary release.  This was probably a case of trying to hustle too much and it bit me.  All of that said, if the play happens at the plate and I'm still standing by the 1st base dugout, I'm going to take hell for that too.

[cyclonehokiece]

Yeah, my thought is that I should have stayed with the catch completely.  The problem is that the catch was right at the 1b dugout, within a foot of the dugout fence (and DBT near the dugout) so there was really no way to get into a position where I saw both short of literally running around the play to the 1st base side of it, which was impossible (the ball wasn't hit 80 feet into the air).  I pretty much had to take it with my back toward the 3rd base.  Perhaps I could have put my right shoulder right against the fence so I was 90 degrees from third (watch the catch and then turn over my left shoulder to see third), but either way, it took more than a glance.  Really though, I just think that I assumed too much (that he caught it so nothing else was going to happen) and should've stayed with the catch for the catch until there was a voluntary release.  This was probably a case of trying to hustle too much and it bit me.  All of that said, if the play happens at the plate and I'm still standing by the 1st base dugout, I'm going to take hell for that too.

Sounds like you almost had a situation where you were damned if you do and damned if you don't.  Someone was going to be unhappy about something.  This is a line if you know the coach won't go ballistic (and he is of the school that is paying you) to say "that is a $XX call" meaning get another umpire and we would of probably had it covered.

[th3]

I had a worse one yesterday - in this one the foul pop up was 1/2 way between home and 1st and the catcher and 1B converged on the ball and 1B made the catch, with no one covering home..i forgot all about the runner on 3rd until i heard everyone yell "he's coming"....he scored easily and no one appealed or questioned anything so i assume the runner went back and tagged up - but who knows....

[BigUmpire]

Just wait until we standing between 2 fields calling 2 games for $35.00