[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by jicecone
Warren, I could agree with you if you did'nt conveintlly add words into the statement to make your case favorble to your opinion. Also, if it had stated, Make all decisions on the bases. But, it DOES NOT state ""on the bases", except at home base which is normally reserved to the plate umpire."

I'm sure you didn't mean to imply that I had manipulated a rule citation to suit my argument, did you? The last paragraph you cited was my personal argument and was clearly differentiated from my indented citation of OBR 9.04(b). I quoted OBR 9.04(b) entirely without alteration. You can check that for yourself at MLB.COM Official Baseball Rules Online

Originally posted by jicecone
The fact that mechanics are taught for the the official to be in the "C" position for this type of play, when the rules allow "A field umpire may take any position", causes one to believe that there is descrepancy between the rules and the practice of officiating by the rules.

I believe that this is the point here. The official is NOT always in the "position on the playing field best suited to make impending decisions on the bases."

Of course the rules are enforced by umpires choosing a system of mechanics to give them that best possible position. That doesn't change who has primary responsibility on the call UNLESS that is agreed as part of the system of mechanics. No system of mechanics that I know includes a statement that "the UIC can usurp your responsibilities on the bases anytime he thinks you might have missed something".

Originally posted by jicecone
Therefore as officials, it either becomes necessary that we review and adjust our mechanics to cover ALL situations, at ALL times or we do the next best thing and realize the deficiencies of some of our mechanics, and adjust accordingly.

Certainlly, having the PU rule on this type of play when the BU can't possibly do his job thorughly because of the position, "Umpiring Mechanics" have put him in, is not unreasonable.

As I said, PU cannot KNOW for a fact that the BU "missed" anything until AFTER the BU has made his call. The Obstruction "off-the-ball" is an exception. Interference is usually NOT an exception because that can only occur with the ball in proximity, and the BU should be watching that.

I'm not saying don't use mechanics to overcome the shortcomings of the rules in a 2-man system. I AM saying don't use "getting the call 'right'" as an excuse for one umpire to usurp the authority of another anytime he feels like there may be a problem. The rules are very specific about that - see OBR 9.02(c).

Cheers

[Edited by Warren Willson on Sep 11th, 2003 at 05:21 PM]