I did NOT call time . . . I did NOT!

[The Man in Blue]

Well, this was an interesting one!

Middle school game . . . batter hits a 2-RBI double, comes into second base headfirst (for no reason), hops up, celebrates with whatever dumb little dance he had going on, and starts to strip off the body armor. 

Outfield has gotten the ball to F6 who is nonchalantly getting ready to throw it back to the pitcher.

BR leaves second base, looking as if he is taking his body armor to the third base coach.  Coach stays in the box.  Defense pays no attention, except for their coach who is screaming "Pay attention, the ball is live!"  BR continues his trot on over to third base and stays put.

My PU is staring at me, incredulous.  I give a subtle shrug and a thumbs up, then hustle back to position.

Between innings, we get together. 

PU: "Did you not have time on that?"

Me: "He never asked, so . . . 

PU: "Huh."

Me: "Yeah, huh."

 

Coaches never said a word to us because they knew.

[Velho]

You think that was coached/planned or just dumb luck to get a free base?

[MadMax]

11 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Outfield has gotten the ball to F6 who is nonchalantly getting ready to throw it back to the pitcher.

BR leaves second base, looking as if he is taking his body armor to the third base coach.  Coach stays in the box. 

Huh. In our Leagues this summer, we had this exact scenario happen, complete with goofy little dance, but instead of a “freely taken” base, it resulted in an Out… and the inning-ending out at that. 
I watched it happen. BR never motioned, gestured, or said anything so as to request Time. And the U1 (a Push/Slide was performed) never called or signaled Time, sooooooo… 

12 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Coaches never said a word to us because they knew.

Yup. 

[noumpere]

Just like the LL play: R3.  Batter approaches the box, pats his pockets and then yells to R3 -- "Hey, let me borrow your batting gloves."  R3 walks down to BR and then touches the plate.

Yes, it's bush, but yes, the other team needs to learn.

[grayhawk]

I'm proactive in calling time when I know the batter-runner at 2B needs to take his equipment to a base coach. If he's wearing his evo shield elbow guard or shin guard, once I know there is no further play, I'm already calling time and telling the runner to go ahead. Keeps the game moving and prevents any shenanigans. 

[urout17]

13 hours ago, Velho said:

You think that was coached/planned or just dumb luck to get a free base?

"Middle school game".....'nuff said.  100% dumb luck.

[JSam21]

2 hours ago, grayhawk said:

I'm proactive in calling time when I know the batter-runner at 2B needs to take his equipment to a base coach. If he's wearing his evo shield elbow guard or shin guard, once I know there is no further play, I'm already calling time and telling the runner to go ahead. Keeps the game moving and prevents any shenanigans. 

Quick peek around. Call time and if it works with your rotation (3 or 4 umpire system) take it yourself to the base coach.

[The Man in Blue]

10 hours ago, grayhawk said:

I'm proactive in calling time when I know the batter-runner at 2B needs to take his equipment to a base coach. If he's wearing his evo shield elbow guard or shin guard, once I know there is no further play, I'm already calling time and telling the runner to go ahead. Keeps the game moving and prevents any shenanigans. 

I get what you are saying … but if nobody asks, I’m not stopping things. I’m ready, but why?  

If he runs it over and comes back and the defense doesn’t do anything … we have the same outcome less the dead ball.  If he takes third or gets tagged out, we have a learning moment.

Then again, I’m one of those who believes he wore it there, he should wear it back.  I mean, since NFHS asked … 

[The Man in Blue]

8 hours ago, JSam21 said:

Quick peek around. Call time and if it works with your rotation (3 or 4 umpire system) take it yourself to the base coach.

🤣🤣🤣

3 or 4 umpire system!

🤣🤣🤣

[The Man in Blue]

21 hours ago, Velho said:

You think that was coached/planned or just dumb luck to get a free base?

That’s the thing. I usually have a good sense for these things, and I wasn’t certain.

It felt like dumb luck that became 12% of a plan. 

[grayhawk]

45 minutes ago, The Man in Blue said:

I get what you are saying … but if nobody asks, I’m not stopping things. I’m ready, but why?  

If he runs it over and comes back and the defense doesn’t do anything … we have the same outcome less the dead ball.  If he takes third or gets tagged out, we have a learning moment.

Then again, I’m one of those who believes he wore it there, he should wear it back.  I mean, since NFHS asked … 

Because 99 times out of 100 (probably more), he's just going to ask anyway. No need to wait for the edge case. 

[The Man in Blue]

10 hours ago, grayhawk said:

Because 99 times out of 100 (probably more), he's just going to ask anyway. No need to wait for the edge case. 

I could go with the “but you’re depriving the defense of a chance at an out” crowd, but I’m not big on that logic.

So the 99 times he asks, I grant it. The time that he doesn’t, I don’t impose it.

More than 99 times of 100 a runner diving back into first base on a pickoff leaves his hand on the base when getting up or asking for time. Should I not call him out the time he doesn’t?  (That happened, too, and I grabbed the out.)

[grayhawk]

2 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

I could go with the “but you’re depriving the defense of a chance at an out” crowd, but I’m not big on that logic.

So the 99 times he asks, I grant it. The time that he doesn’t, I don’t impose it.

More than 99 times of 100 a runner diving back into first base on a pickoff leaves his hand on the base when getting up or asking for time. Should I not call him out the time he doesn’t?  (That happened, too, and I grabbed the out.)

Apples and toasters.

[SeeingEyeDog]

Call me the umpire of the 1920's but, I am simply not granting time unless the player or the coach asks for time. If a runner advances from 2B to 3B without calling time whether he is stripping off protective gear or not and the defense doesn't tag him then, he gets 3B. The ball is live until the umpire kills it...pro-actively kill it at your own risk and peril because now you've introduced that into your game mechanics and added yet another thing to be vigilant about instead of just adhering to what's in the rules and our common mechanics.

~Dawg

[834k3r]

Level of play is germane here, I feel--and everyone's right for their level of baseball.  @The Man in Blue's OP says it's a middle school game. Pretty sure @grayhawk hasn't worked a middle school game in several years (conservatively speaking).

At the higher levels of baseball, players are more aware of everything--and so the mistakes/trick plays/accidental trick plays don't work. So call time preemptively, because the players know nothing weird's going to happen (usually).

Middle school? High school? Not calling time--keeping the ball live--makes sense.

[grayhawk]

9 minutes ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Call me the umpire of the 1920's but, I am simply not granting time unless the player or the coach asks for time. If a runner advances from 2B to 3B without calling time whether he is stripping off protective gear or not and the defense doesn't tag him then, he gets 3B. The ball is live until the umpire kills it...pro-actively kill it at your own risk and peril because now you've introduced that into your game mechanics and added yet another thing to be vigilant about instead of just adhering to what's in the rules and our common mechanics.

~Dawg

I'm not saying YOU should call time knowing that the runner will ask you for time. Stay with what works for you. I'm saying I do it to keep the game moving when the runner has protective equipment on. It's obvious that he's going to ask anyway. If he gets to 2B and only has batting gloves on, then I'm keeping the ball live. As far as adhering to what's in the rules?

6-1a Note 2: The umpire shall not call time until a play has been completed.

When a batter hits a double and is standing on 2B and the defense has the ball in the infield and is making no further play, then the play has been completed. There is nothing in the rules preventing an umpire from calling time until it's requested by a player or coach.

As far as common mechanics is concerned, this is common in my area of the county at the NCAA level. But wait for him to ask? Sure. Just be ready to grant it by knowing what the defense is doing and where the ball is. It's mildly annoying when I work with a partner that has to be asked for time 2 or 3 times by a runner in this situation because he's not paying attention or he feels F1 has to have the ball before he calls time.
 

6 minutes ago, 834k3r said:

Level of play is germane here

Yes, I suppose. I'm so used to doing it in college games that I also do it in off-season tournaments as well.

[Biscuit]

I agree that it is entirely level dependant. At the college level, I'm always doing it if they have a elbow or shin guard. If it's not entirely obvious, I'll ask them "are you going to need time?" If all they're going to do is stick their gloves in their back pocket, they tell me "nah, I'm good" the majority of the time. If they want to take the gloves to a base coach (which I don't get), they'll say yeah, and I'll call time before they ask for it, which usually gets them trotting over to the base coach a few seconds quicker. 

At lower levels... It often just creates confusion. Especially offering to take their gear to the base coach (though it's not super often that I'm working 3 man at that level). But even in high school, if they have an elbow guard, it's almost always going to a base coach, so I'll get time preemptively there. 

The mantra of don't just give out time has a reason behind it. If time is going to be called anyway, then you're actually doing something antithetical to the principle that led you to avoid calling time often. Know WHY you do what you do. 

[SeeingEyeDog]

Thank you @Biscuit and @grayhawk for the further exposition...

~Dawg