Quote:
Originally posted by Dave Hensley
It seems clear to me (and a couple of others who have participated) that Moose was not sure of his call, went to his partner, received additional, unequivocal, salient information, and then corrected what he judged to be his initial manifestly wrong decision. That is completely in accord with the unambiguous instruction quoted.
What Moose did is not illegal.
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See, Dave, here is the problem with posters who arrive at a conclusion, because it suits some ulterior motive, and then try to find support for it in the rules: They cling to the narrow view, and even there can be proven wrong.
If you would get your head out of the GENERAL Instructions to Umpires and into the SPECIFIC instructions contained in OBR 9.02(a), what Moose did clearly WAS illegal
for that type of call!
Now to the broader perspective. I have said many times in this forum, and in my articles for eUmpire.com, that enforcing the rules is NOT the ONLY responsibility of the umpire. Read OBR 9.01(a) and (b) and you will see several responsibilities, only one of which is enforcing the rules. Sometimes these responsibilities compete, and then we need to find an ethical basis that lets us chose the most appropriate responsibility at the time. In the case of changing the
judgement call, that is NO CONTEST. Umpire Dignity (read Game Management) wins hands down, every time!
The rules intended that the umpire's judgement decision be
unquestioned. That is clearly the import of OBR 9.02
ff. To argue that the GENERAL admonition to get the call right supercedes a SPECIFIC rule requiring that the judgement decision, once made, be "FINAL" is absolute twaddle! What's more, once this coach/manager presented an alternative view of events and requested Moose check with his partner, he was effectively arguing a judgement call! That, too, is illegal! Dave, perhaps you are emotionally too close to this issue. Perhaps you have allowed your feelings for, or against, the personalities involved to cloud your judgement. Next thing we know, you and Moose will be humming show tunes together! (grin) Please give up this irrational nonsense before it's too late!
Bottom line, Moose was
sure enough to
LIE about what he saw and, when the coach
called his bluff, instead of dealing with the consequences of that
LIE himself Moose looked to his partner to dig him out of the pile of crap he had created. Not only wasn't that legal, it also wasn't ethical! Get a grip, Dave!
Cheers,
[Edited by Warren Willson on Feb 8th, 2001 at 05:17 PM]