[WindyCityBlue]

Tim C.,

The issue in helping when not asked is "what makes you correct?"

We have all worked games when we saw our partner make a call that look "obviously wrong" from our vantage point. What makes us correct? Why did we see it better than the calling official?

Because of the angle! I had a catcher head back to the screen in a major college game. We are taught to watch the player not the ball. The wind swirled and before I knew it, I was completely blocked by the catcher as he “caught” the ball. I asked to see the ball and made the signal. As my hand was going up, my first base partner and the first base coach came charging in. Uh, oh...third base partner kept both coaches at bay while my first base partner asked me if I saw it skim the screen just as he caught it. I told him I couldn’t have seen it and he agreed. We knew the call was wrong, but I had made my call. A few hundred people on the first base side knew I was wrong, too. We corrected the call and heard the boo birds and cat calls for the rest of the game. Our crew met for the pre-game of the second half of teh DH and the coach who lost the call, said that that was the right thing to do. That call happeneda few years ago and we’ve kept our schedules.




ONLY give help when asked and BEFORE a call is made.

Did you miss ALL of the call reversals in the Majors this year? We had two catches, eight home runs and several foul ball calls changed. We’ve also had MLB umpires acknowledge that they were not in the best position to make the call, so don’t tell me that by hustling, you will always be in the perfect position to make the call. There is no perfect position!




The only situation where one should ask for help AFTER a call is something along the lines of a ball leaving the field for a home run or foul ball and some one else on your crew might have a different perspective.

Did you get a good bet down on the game? Why else would you decide which calls are worth getting right and which ones aren’t? Dropped catches, trapped balls, out of play calls, those aren’t worthy of your discretion?



I just love the tendy ones that want to "always get the call right."

I just love the guys that don’t work this level of ball, telling me what they would do.
BTW, what is a “tendy one”? If you are alluding to the direction that MLB is taking in making the umpires more accountable, this is not a “trend”. The NHL and NFL have instant replay because they recognize the frailty of human judgement. MLB is just taking a different tact and asking their officials to do what they can to get the calls right. If you don’t feel the need to correct a bad call, don’t do it. That just says more about you than me.