On the field lessons.....

[Catch18]

 

Had to swallow a tough one today w/ probably the toughest not-sure-what-happened-and-I-made-a-call-anyway plays I’ve seen in 20+ years.

 

I’m on the dish. HS Varsity, bottom 3rd, 0 outs, R1, R2. Hard liner smoked up the middle and hits the pitcher in the foot. Ball ricochets about 20 feet in the air to the 2nd baseman & he catches it. I saw it 100% of the way, I’ve got it not hitting the ground at all and I’d bet my life on it.

 

I come out very vocal from the plate. Call it big twice, “that’s a catch, that’s a catch!” It’s dead silent because I think everyone in the park has no idea we have a catch and no one’s running or moving. 2nd baseman throws to first, we’ve got 2....so far.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I see both head coaches coming out. I glance over to 3BC and put a hand up, “Tom, don’t come out here.” OK, we’re still freaking live here. That’s where focus came off the play and put me (and my partner, too) into a crap house. I’m about 5 steps out from behind the plate, after coming out to sell the call. Coach stops and then I come out another 5 steps or so, but I’ve got no idea where the ball is when I look back to the play. SH*#. Not sure why my partner doesn’t seem to be really looking at the fielders/runners/ball either. Not much I can do about that. I didn’t call time but my partner may have....not a good time for the situation to be looking murky . Bad situation we’re in because we still have runners who haven’t tagged/returned and fielders who are still sorta standing around. We start talking and I look up and the SS has the ball and is standing on 2nd. Both runners had advanced and are still standing on 3rd & 2nd still. I explain to my partner I’ve got a catch 100% by the 2nd baseman. He says, “well, then, we’ve got a triple play.” So I signal again we’ve got a catch and 3 outs.

 

Players start running off the field and 3BC comes over to ask how is it a triple play. I tell him, “well, the SS is standing on 2nd with the ball (this is after 1B retired R1 for sure, who hadn’t tagged up). He didn’t put up much argument, didn’t ask us to re-confir, or anything else.

 

About 2 innings later, we meet on the line and I tell him I don’t feel real good about not seeing “how/when” the SS got the ball and did we kill it before that throw. He somewhat agreed and didn’t really offer much in the line of seeing it thrown to 2nd either. After the game we’re “Walkin’ the Mile” back to the lot, a parent says to us, “hey, you wanna see that triple play on replay?” Hahaha....no. Not a big deal from dad, it wasn’t nasty, confrontational, etc. I think he honestly wanted to just see if we wanted to see a replay.

 

All in all guys, it was probably a once in a career play, crazy luck for sure. Moral of the story: Never, ever, take your eye off the ball. I let the happy-feet coach coming out take my focus away, and got lucky it didn’t turn to a total SH*#fest. Plus, you BETTER have a handle on who’s calling time and keeping plays live when they need to be. That outcome could have been complete mayhem and we’re lucky it wasn’t. Definitely a good experience on situational awareness!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[maven]

Agree.

[Catch18]

I really appreciate the 142 of you that have viewed this narrative for not sticking around to rake me over the coals.

Good luck everyone in your seasons - don’t suck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mudisfun]

1 hour ago, Catch18 said:

I really appreciate the 142 of you that have viewed this narrative for not sticking around to rake me over the coals.

Good luck everyone in your seasons - don’t suck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well in that case