Quote:
Originally posted by rmstone
Ok heres a situation I've seen recently...
FU is making a call at first (comming from behind the mound) and his angle gets cut off by a second baseman comming into his view. He calls the runner out. The PU(me) is standing at home looking straight down the line to first observes the first basemans foot is off the bag by at least 3 feet! I'm not kidding, for real, 3 full feet. THe field umpire from his angle saw the timing right on, and the throw did beat the runner so he called him out. He has no idea the firstbaseman was no where near. Coaches start to complain and the first base coach looks at me, knowing I very CLEARLY saw the pulled foot.
Do I blow it off and simply say "not my call coach" or go change the call?
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First, Papa C's fab five are out of date. If the MLB umpires have to get it right, so do we. It is irrelevant what was standard practice ten years ago. Since then, the umpires lost their union and Bud Selig has taken over and redefined the rules. We have to live with it because like it or not, the coaches take their cue from what the see on TV.
Somehow, the PU must get the BU's attention. Here is what I would do. Your association politics may differ:
If I was working with a big dog, I would wait for him to come to me for help. If the coach came to me and asked why I did not change the call, I would explain that I cannot change my partner's call. I would explain that my partner has to ask me for help. Hopefully, the coach would get the hint and go to my partner and implore him to ask me for help. If my partner would not come to me, tough s$$$ for the coach.
OTOH, if my partner was a little dog and would not come to me for help, I would wander out there while he was arguing with the coach and take him aside and tell him what happened. One way or another, this call would be changed if I was the big dog on the game.
This is because my assignor holds the senior man accountable for what happens on the field. We get blamed if a little dog screws up and we can fix it but don't. If I am going to be blamed, then I am going to insert myself into the situation and to heck with umpire convention.
Peter