[SRW]

It's funny... this exact same situation happened to the team I help coach today in our end-of-season league tournament. Our catcher couldn't get to the tag at HP because the batter was in the way. Blue (a new ump in our association) didn't call it - ruled the runner safe. I called time and went out there, and calmly asked him if he saw the interference by the batter. He thought a second, looked at me and said "Yes." I asked him "Then who's out?"

He thought some more, and said "The lead runner." I just said "OK Blue, make the call" - knowing that it should have been the batter, and the runner should have gone back to 3B. He turned and reversed the call just like he told me. The other coach came unglued (she obviously wanted the run to count).

His explination to her: your batter isn't on base yet, so the out is the lead runner. The other coach accepted this. (meanwhile I'm back in the dugout now, telling my other coaches I'll tell them what happened in a minute...)

Afterwards, when I saw the ump in the parking lot after the game, I told him that he called a good game, but that interference play he needed to read up on. He looked at me funny and said "Yeah, I was gonna brush up on that tonight." I told him that it was a good idea - because I pulled one by him. He looked at me all serious and said "What? You helped me through that." I said, "Yes, I did... and you made the decisions. If you read the book, the batter should have been out and the runner back on 3B."

He just stared at me - "You told me the wrong thing?!?"

"No, Blue - I just asked you questions to help your line of thought. You made a decision. It was better for me to shut my mouth at that point and walk away then to tell you that you got it wrong."

He stares at me dumbfounded - "You're bad..."

"Yep, I coach and I umpire. Bad combination. Look at it this way, blue: You're gonna read the book tonight, and you're never gonna forget this call for a long time. And the next time it happens, you're gonna get it right.. aren't you?"

I walked away - he was just standing there shaking his head.