IF I were a coach on this board, I would say that three out of shape, fat, slow umpires would STILL miss the call because the other umpire wouldn't have been watching anyway...but I'm not. I'd work with (and for) any of you any day of the week...and twice on the weekends.
That being said, sometimes we DO get blocked out by players...2 umpire system is based on getting angles on calls. Sometimes we just get blocked. No ones fault, but an unfortunate situation when it happens.
The two umpire system can be used more efficiently than it is used now. Several of the umpires I regularly work with will change things up to use the system better. THe only problem is that we ONLY change it up with each other...because we trust each other, and know each other will be there if needed.
In that situation you describe TexBlue, maybe we should pole the coaches. Each coach gets one vote. I would tend to estimate a tie in this case...offensive coach votes no catch, defensive coach votes catch. Maybe we should go to the fans for their opinions. They all had a really good view of it (which may be true, since they were probably at least a few feet up in the air so they were not blocked---except by the fence, the guy in front of them, their son who wanted to go to the bathroom, the soda can, the "heat" from the nacho cheese...and an umpire and two defensive players). I wonder how they would vote?
We can't guess an out, so if we don't see it, we don't call it.
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