2 man FED foil ball

[aaluck]

Walked from work tonight to watch a HS week-long tournament on a AA field. Have a couple of games tomorrow for this big tournament and wanted to hang out for a while. Solid crew on the field. 
 

R2, R3 0 outs. Sky high Pop-up drifting towards the 3rd base dugout. PU runs to watch for catch/no catch, catch and carry etc.  3rd baseman catches the ball at the rail with the PU in a direct line looking down the dugout rail—again AA field so a lot of room.  R3 is breaking for home on the catch.  PU drop steps and turns toward home and makes the safe call once ball is thrown.   Which I think was the right call. 
 

After the game I went down to the dressing room and spoke with the umpires. We were all discussing should he have been in a better position and how could he have accomplished that with the catch responsibilities. Or should he have been where he was and do the best he could to make the call at home?

[Velho]

Was this a 2, 3, or 4 umpire crew? Edit: 2 man as title says

[SH0102]

Heading says 2-man.  My response is there is no perfect situation…commit too much one way and you have a great angle on catch/out of play, but too far for play at home to be set and in good position.  Stay near plate and have a bad view/angle of catch.

So while there is no X to mark the spot, answer is somewhere in middle.  You have to be able to get play at plate so whatever that distance you can do that from is, that’s where you get.

with 2 outs, obviously you can commit to catch bc either inning is over or it’s foul.

[Jackrabbitslims]

I have watched a lot of Minor League 2 man baseball. This is a challenging  play for  a high schooler to make and then throw to the plate. Plate guy should get the ball in play/ out of play/ catch no catch, do the best with the play at the plate. I have never seen a Minor league runner test a fielder on something like that. This might just be chalked up to the level of play. Might not be a right answer to this question. 

[wolfe_man]

Agree with Sho here.  Do the best you can. In 2 man it's never a perfect view for both, you have to pick your battles. 

I think I'd stay closer to the plate personally, but if you can get further down the line to get a better look at catch/no catch then that's great too.  The main thing here, in my opinion, would be to make sure you don't miss the call at home. 

If you miss a catch/no catch 100-115 feet away, then they may grumble.  But if you run down there to get the catch and then miss the call at the plate because you left there to go elsewhere, then you're going to hear it from OHC.

But Jackrabbit makes a great point too.  Level of play here and know the teams style that you're umpiring also.  Will they send the runner on that play?  If not, you can go take a closer look at the catch.   How many HS F5's could make that catch and then the throw home on target?  Knowing the players is so helpful here.  This is why we watch warm-ups and infield tosses.  Sometimes it'll give you an idea of what you need to be watching for when calling the game. 

I love baseball for this very reason, so many intangibles!  It's so much more than just hitting and throwing.