Oops...screwed the pooch.

[LMSANS]

I was working the plate for a LL-Jr game last night.  A very tightly contested game, unusual for this league.  The lead is changing hands every inning.  My partner is a youth.  Usually the youth are here for the money and barely take care of the outs/safes.  So signals between partners are non-existent. 

I signal IFF out of habit.  Pop fly to F4, I call out in my best umpire voice "Infield Fly, batter is out!"  soon after the inning is over.  I'm standing on the 1B line between innings.  AC on his way to 1B stops and very respectfully asks if he can ask a question.  I say sure.  "I thought you needed a runner on 1B for an infield fly."  gulp.  I look to my partner, "weren't the bases loaded?" "no." "I guess I made a mistake."

Then behind me I hear the HC, "Hey Blue, can you tell me why that was an infield fly."Yes, I screwed the pooch."

I'm glad I got that out of my system.  Now I can finish my season having already made this year's mistake.

[Mick]

There's not enough ketchup in the world that will sweeten that old shytte sandwich.

[MadMax]

Yes, but did F4 catch the pop-up?

Can you imagine the crap you'd get if he didn't?

[mr magoo]

Just remember the players and coaches are also responsible to know the situation. So shame on them

[ZebraStripes]

We were told of our sister crew in a two field tournament last year calling infield fly....with two outs and the ball dropped.

[kylehutson]

I called infield fly with only R2 and R3 last year. It was a high popup to F6 and both runners were moving back to touch the base even before I said anything. F6 caught it, I looked around and said to him "Whoops - thank you for not making a liar of me."

Since then I've been overly-paranoid about making sure *before* make the call.

[LMSANS]

Yes, but did F4 catch the pop-up?

Can you imagine the crap you'd get if he didn't?

​Yes he did...a real challenge for this league.  All coaches agreed...I got away with one.