[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by Dave Hensley
No, you were wrong. You claimed a part of the General Instructions was obsolete, when it has now been quoted in the current MLB Umpires Manual. It has been a part of the rules since it was introduced, and by quoting it, the authors of the MLB Umpire Manual are validating that it remains just as relevant today as it was when it was first introduced.

I have NEVER claimed that the specific part of General Instructions requiring a "simple set of signals" was obsolete. On the contrary, I advocated that very thing myself. Do your searches. Produce evidence for that contrary claim. Your memory on this subject is obviously faulty.

What I DID claim was that the admonition that "The first requisite is to get decisions correctly" was clearly superceded by the instruction from the PBUC Umpire Manual that "The main objective is to have all decisions ultimately correct". The two are demonstrably NOT the same.

The question arose over the General Instructions suggestion on doubtful calls that "If not sure, ask one of your associates" was almost carte blanche approval for umpires to ask for help anytime they felt it necessary. Not so. That, too, was clarified in the updated Instructions to Umpires from the PBUC Umpire Manual. The newer admonition was to "...ask for assistance if blocked out on a play."{my emphasis}

Our current rules don't QUOTE the Knickerbocker Rules; the MLB Umpire Manual QUOTES the General Instructions to Umpires. That does, indeed, disprove the notion that the General Instructions are or ever were obsolete.

It may prove that particular part is no longer obsolete. It does NOT disprove, logically, that the General Instructions "are or ever were obsolete". There has been much water pass under the bridge in the meantime. Perhaps MLB has now rediscovered that, at least in that respect, the old way was the best. Good for them. That doesn't mean the old General Instructions are to be reinstated in their entirety.

If you replace "superceded" with "supplemented," then I would agree. The entire PBUC Manual is a supplement to the Official Rules. Section 7 should be treated no differently, and there is no such statement that it "supercedes" the General Instructions.

Actually the PBUC Manual is an Official Interpretation of those rules and instructions, and as such it takes precedence over the original in our understanding. That means it supercedes the original in our understanding of its meaning and intent. The Official Rules have been changed by interpretation for decades. Notice I said "changed" and not "supplemented" or even slightly modified. You know that to be true.

The MLB Umpire Manual citation you referenced cites and attributes a direct quote to the General Instructions that follow OBR 9.05.

Yes it does. But that was NOT the issue under debate in our previous discussions on those General Instructions, and I believe you know it! The question was when and how to obtain help.

I endorsed Childress' "Fab Five" reasons for umpires to go outside of the process and offer help before it was requested - the same "limited number of cases" to which the MLB manual refers. What I objected to was the suggestion that the General Instructions made getting the call right more important than the process for achieving that. I have been entirely consistent on that point. That was also the reason for my citation of the MLB manual in this thread.

Cheers