[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by warriordad

Single umpire. Two outs. Runners at 1st and 2nd. Batter stikes out, but catcher misses the ball. Runner starts running to 1st, but is called out by the umpire before the catcher has a chance to throw the ball. When questioned, the umpire states that the batter is out if 1st is occupied even with two outs.

My question is this. Do I attempt to "educate" this umpire by giving him a copy of the rule that applies?

First off does this league have protest procedures?

The simple answer is: Protest the ruling: No need to educate, go ballistic,etc. If there are no protest procdures you are out of luck.

Now I will put on my "Shirlock Holmes" hat and surmize what I think happened without being there.

No attempt was made to argue the call since the ump had already ejected ALL of the parents from BOTH teams (they had to watch the rest of the game from the parking lot). The coaches and scorekeepers where the only ones allowed to stay

Sounds like this was a rough game and the umpire simply wanted to get the game over with. He probably thought that the coach didn't know the rule, and had enough so he wanted to go home.

My next question is this.

Umpires cannot EJ spectators. They can ask for their removal, but we don't EJ fans. If it was that bad, he should have simply stopped the game and went home.

Bottom line - Sounds like there is more to the story than "meets the eye".

Pete Booth