We had a close play at first last night where the throw is up the line toward home plate and the first baseman is clearly off the bag. The first baseman takes the throw and attempts a tag. The base umpire calls safe and the defensive coach comes out saying that there was a tag. The base umpire looked to the plate umpire for help. There was no immediate call and they got together with the defensive coach. The plate umpire's explanation was that he did see a tag but he couldn't say for sure if the runner had hit the base before the tag. The base umpire said that he knew that the first baseman was off the bag, but he couldn't be sure when the tag happened. After some more discussion, the umpires decided that the runner would be called out. Needless to say (do we really need to say this), the offensive coach was not happy with the call.
My question is what is the proper mechanic on the tag play. I think there would have been a lot less controversy if the base umpire had asked if there was a tag and the plate umpire had immediately said, "yes" and called the runner out. By huddling up with the coach involved, they seemed to be simply "getting their story straight."
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