[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown


So back to the question at hand, "If no one else notices, or cares, should I?" Do you? Baseball is definitely a different sport from basketball and perhaps the "unexpected" calls are truly expected, or at least accepted as part of the game. Different from basketball, does making the unexpected, but technically correct calls, constitute being a good baseball umpire?

Tony, as TEE said you will not get a clear-cut response when it comes to Umpiring a baseball game.

The infamous balk call to end the game is one example

There are many many others.

We had a recent thread on a dropped third strike 1st base occupied with less than 2 outs. One might think that this is an easy question with an easy result

WRONG

There are those who say "The teams should know the rules so I am not going to change my mechanics simply because of this play"

Then there are those that say you should verbalize this call and let everyone know what's happening ie; Batter's out.

We can go on and on and other officials must get a real "kick" out of an umpires Forum Board

The important thing is that each SPECIFIC association follow ONE practice so that there is some sort of consistency.

I for one would like to see Umpires become more in tune to what Basketball / Hockey officials do.

I would not have a called a balk on an intentional base on balls to end the game that way UNLESS:

1. Umpiring was my career and not my Hobby AND (not and or)
2. The memorandum from Mr. Yeast was clearly understood as to what he actually meant.

What I mean by number 2 is this:

I do not know about you but I am not afraid to ask questions no matter how stupid they might seem or what people think about the question.

If I received the memorandum from Mr. Yeast, I would have asked the question

1. Mr Yeast under what circumstances are you referring to?
Should we as an association call balks during an IBB? or do we have discretion?

I am not in the association but in a nutshell, memorandums are generally issued because there is a series of complaints. I doubt the complaints on NCAA umpires not being strict with the discernable stop balk had anything to do with an IBB. It probably dealt with REAL steal situations.

In Summary, I think at least at the major league level, umpires are starting to become more like basketball/football/hockey officials.

You now see umpires "huddle" as would football officials do in order to get the correct call.

In general you will NOT get ONE answer when visiting an Umpires Forum even on some things that might seem routine.

Pete Booth