View Single Post
  #21 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jul 24, 2001, 09:02am
Carl Childress Carl Childress is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Edinburg, TX
Posts: 1,212
Send a message via ICQ to Carl Childress
Re: Re: My two cents

Quote:
Originally posted by Patrick Szalapski
Quote:
Me? I gotta "see" a fair ball.
Really? I've always had the opposite attitude. A batted ball is fair until it is proven to me otherwise. Is this not good to have?

P-Sz
Pat:

The answer to your question is: That is not "good to have." It's the principle of "benefit of the doublt," which all veteran umpires understand.

Consider: (1) If you don't see a tag, the runner is .... (2) If you don't see the batter swing, it is a ....

Thus, if you don't SEE the ball fair, it is ....

(Of course, the opposite would be true, but that is not in keeping with the clear tradition of calling instances 1 and 2 above.)

There's a philosophical point embedded in the nature of baseball: Pointing a ball "fair" is a decision that instantly affects the progress of the game. Calling that ball "foul" merely postpones the moment of truth. So, if you are guessing about fair/foul, your best chance of NOT affecting the outcome is to signal "foul."

__________________
Papa C
My website
Reply With Quote