Fixing a Situation?

[slick225]

Women's FP, ASA rules. Top 3, R1, 1 out, and I'm behind the plate. Batter hits a tall fly to short, and R1 is a few steps off the bag. The shortstop misses the catch, but throws to second for the force out.

 

Suddenly, my partner calls time and starts yelling "No no, everyone is safe. I screwed up". Turns out, she said "infield fly" within earshot of R1, who got confused and just stood still on the base path. She never signaled out, and no one except R1 and F1 heard her call the infield fly. Both teams are yelling at me now to fix the situation, and after talking it over with my partner (who was clueless on what to do, but realized her mistake), I call R1 out at second, and put BR on first.

 

So two questions: first, was that correct? Second, how the heck do you handle a situation like this? The VT manager grumbled a bit, and the HT manager came up to me after the game and said they would have accepted any solution I picked.

[maven]

I have no idea about softball.

 

For baseball: this is not an IFF situation, so even if an umpire verbalized IFF it would mean nothing. In an actual IFF situation, the batter is out for hitting an IFF, not because of an umpire's call. By the same token, an umpire's mistaken call cannot put a runner out.

 

You fixed it by allowing the result of play to stand. That certainly seems proper to me.

[SoCal Lurker]

As I pitcure the play, the runner had no chance anyway -- she wasn't going to be far enough off the bag to get to second on that play or she would have been more likley to get doubled off on the catch (which was more likely than the drop).  So I agree with Maven that the fix should keep the out -- otherwise the defense is being unfarily penalized for the umpire error.

 

But why were you making a fix?  If it was your partners' call, why wasn't your partner the one who owned making any changes to her call?

[mstaylor]

Sounds like a less experienced partner deferred to a more experienced partner. This is a case where softball and baseball are the same.

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[SoCal Lurker]

Sounds like a less experienced partner deferred to a more experienced partner. This is a case where softball and baseball are the same.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

 

But doesn't protocol require that, if the less esperienced U made the call, it remains that umpire who then fixes it?  Otherwise aren't you announcing to the field "my bozo partner can't handle this so I'm taking over!" 

[slick225]

I should clarify - my partner didn't help things by pointing to me and saying "He's in charge! talk to him!".    It was apparent that she didn't know how to handle it, so I made the call. Maybe not the best "protocol" but I didn't want to keep the dog and pony show going, especially with both teams yapping.

[SoCal Lurker]

I should clarify - my partner didn't help things by pointing to me and saying "He's in charge! talk to him!".    It was apparent that she didn't know how to handle it, so I made the call. Maybe not the best "protocol" but I didn't want to keep the dog and pony show going, especially with both teams yapping.

   Hopefully she's a newbie still trying to figure things out . . ..

[mstaylor]

 

 

I should clarify - my partner didn't help things by pointing to me and saying "He's in charge! talk to him!". 

I had a similar situation except I was coaching. Two longtime coaches made the switch to umpiring and was working my game. I questioned a rule they improperly enforced. The other manager complained that they fixed it and the PU pointed at me and said,"Ask him, he knows more about the rules than I do."