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Bob, I appreciate your honesty.
You should have anticipated my next question. If it is okay for a fielder to say, "Go!" why is it a problem for some umpires to hear, "Back!"?
My friends at today's get together were all baseball umpires, some only officiated high school and youth while the others are college and above. Without question, the younger (okay, I'm not that young anymore) umpires said that they would penalize it, while the ones with more grey said that they don't know which rule it violates, if any.
I told them about the HS V.O. rule and the younger ones rallied around it. The silverbacks grimaced and said what I've held all along. If the book doesn't say it specifically, don't call it. Five of us have been through pro school and figured we'd say, "Don't do that." if it really bothered us. We would only do it, if the verbal chatter was distracting to us, NOT the opposition. Most of us agreed that the spirit of the game is not broken and the coaches have the responsibility to keep their players informed.
So, why is it that the runner can tell the guy to run, but not to go back? What do you do if an infielder yells "swing" to the batter and he doesn't swing?
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