This actually happened in a game last night. R1 stealing second. The throw is late and the runner goes in standing up (even though I am yelling "get down"). The shortstop gets the throw and turns to tag the runner who has one foot on the base and the other past the base helping him keep his balance. The shortstop turns around and puts on a tag that forces the runner to fall off the base. The umpire calls the runner out. As the umpire returns to the A position, I tell him, "Blue, he pushed the runner off the bag." (I am coaching first base). Even more surprising than the call was his response. He said, "Yeah, he did, but he didn't push him very hard." I couldn't believe what he had just said to me. I said, "You have to be kidding me. You can't force a runner off the bag and get him out." He then made the situation worse by saying, "I know he pushed him off, but he might have fallen over anyway." Since when do we make calls by "might have"?
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