[Rog]

Aside from Warren's very astute observations, with which I concur, I'd be ever mindful of the guy with that old 10ga with 3" magnums.

Originally posted by Warren Willson

I know I am taking a risk, here. I haven't posted in general discussion for a while and I see that others who have given you the opinions you asked for have been lambasted - but not by you. Nevertheless, ignoring the heat and the sniping, I believe the average reader is entitled to know how to handle this situation should it occur.

You did the wrong thing, Mike. There is no escaping that. And I am NOT talking about the missed call at 2nd. That can happen to anyone; usually when we are feeling way too confident and things are going along so well. It was a bad mistake, which you have honestly admitted. That's good. That is the 1st step to improving your game so that such mistakes become even rarer, and when they do occur you know better how to handle them.

From your post, here are the subsequent mistakes I believe you made:

1. When the coach/manager started to dispute your view of events, you should have nailed the discussion right there but you didn't. It may appear, in 20/20 hindsight, that his view of events was totally correct and yours was at best incorrect. Nevertheless, as has been pointed out already, having made the call you MUST NOT change it. Instead, you should have responded to the coach/manager in this fashion:

"Skip, I appreciate your input. If I had your view of events I might have called the play differently. As it stands I have made a judgement decision and the runner is out. If I have kicked the call in your view then I will work harder to get it right next time, but I cannot change this call and I cannot make up for any error. Let's play baseball."

What you have now achieved is to tell the coach/manager that you KNOW it is possible you were wrong, but having made the call it stands as a judgement decision. You can't change it now and you won't make it up later. End of story. If he wants to continue with the "debate" he is now arguing a judgement decision and liable to ejection. Suggest quietly that he might want to keep himself in the game and leave the diamond, if he decides to go that route.

2. You have made yourself out to be a liar in this coach/manager's eyes. You told him you "saw the ball dropped on a transfer attempt", and then finally made a decision which clearly makes that view IMPOSSIBLE! He cannot respect you after this. I understand what you were trying to achieve. I believe you wanted to give the coach/manager a plausible explanation for your call, in the hope he would accept that and leave. He didn't.

A better stategy is to turn the question back on the coach. When he says "What did you see, Mike" go back to him with "I believe I saw an out, Skip. What did you see?" There are many occasions when we make decisions of safe/out without actually having the proof positive in our minds. We might not see an actual tag, but we will have enough clues and cues that we can and should use to get the call right within the parameter that we didn't actually see the tag itself. We have to make a call as close as possible to what really happened. That's our job.

Don't lie by saying that you saw a particular action if you really didn't. If the whole action LOOKED like an out to you, however, saying that you believed you saw an out is a legitimate response. When the coach/manager then tells you what he saw, you have given him an opportunity to tell his side of the story and he will be less confrontational for that. Look to point 1 above for the dialogue that follows the airing of the coach/manager's view of events.

3. NEVER go to your partner for help AFTER you have made the call, no matter what the admonition from the coach/manager to do so. If the situation prevents you from getting help BEFORE you've made a call, then make your best call and live with it after that. This is YOUR call make. In this case YOU have already made that call. It cannot properly be changed afterwards, regardless of what your partner saw. Do NOT put your partner in the middle of your foul ups and hope he can get you out from under! That is totally unreasonable and unfair.

Your partner gave you the opportunity to back out, when he said "What do you want?" You should have taken it. Better still, you shouldn't have been there in the first place. If I had been your partner, I would have told you "Mike, I'm not going to make that call from 130 feet away. You have already made the call. Live with it. We can discuss it later, if you like." I'm NOT going to put myself in the middle of this situation, regardless of what I think I saw at that distance. If you are ever PU in this situation, my best advice is "don't pick up the shitty end of the stick".

Mike, this is one of those cases where umpire dignity IS more important than getting the call right. Your career progress, and the game itself, WILL survive the odd bad call. It is possible that your career progress may NOT survive poorly managing what follows. I hope it does.

I have it on good authority that you are a talented official on the diamond. Showing your willingness to expose yourself to criticism in order to improve is a good sign. If it is possible to do so, bite the bullet and apologise to this PU for putting him in this position. Tell him that you KNOW you handled it poorly and that you believe you can do better if the situation ever arises again. Give him an opportunity to learn to respect you all over again, by getting past this bad memory of you as an official. Five innings of good work were undone by this incident. Put it back in perspective for him and then move on.

Cheers,

Warren

[Edited by Warren Willson on Feb 4th, 2001 at 03:30 AM]