Pete,
I am painfully familiar with the "Sorry Skip, I didn't see it..." response. When I get it, I usually am able to realize that further pursuit of my appeal is pointless.
I know there are many managers who will respond to this with a tirade about where the umpire should have been looking, or positioned, or whatever. Personally, I've never seen anything good accomplished by pissing off an umpire during a game - at least not for the one who did the pissing off.
I'll usually just drop it at that point. On occasion, I have followed up with the umpire's assignor after the game.
Usually when the umpire really doesn't know the rule, they tell me what they saw when I ask my questions. They seem to be quite confident that they know the rules better than a mere coach possibly could, so they usually just tell me what they saw. (I'm also usually pretty polite when I'm asking.)
I also understand that I request time and the umpire, at his discretion, calls time. In 11 years of coaching, I've had exactly one umpire refuse my request for time when I wanted to appeal his ruling - sort of.
The play involved a retouch appeal on a caught fly ball where the ball was subsequently thrown out of play and the R1 who had left early was (properly) awarded 3B. When my team executed the appeal, the BU ruled safe. I immediately requested time and began to walk towards the BU, who was in C. After I had taken about two steps out of the dugout, he gave me a "stop sign" - so I stopped. I was about to announce my protest from that spot and return to the dugout, when the PU asked the BU if he could have a word with him. I waited.
They has a private conversation for a minute, and then the BU reversed his call. I have no idea what they talked about, but they did end up getting the call right.
JM
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