Thread: Rollie's Latest
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Old Fri Jan 20, 2006, 08:48am
mcrowder mcrowder is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Little Elm, TX (NW Dallas)
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One solution is to not get straightlined.

The next best is to know when you've been straightlined - and don't be too arrogant to ask for help when it happens. The phantom tag in the NLCS at 2nd base is a perfect example of this. The umpire HAD to know that despite the fact that he called an out, he did not actually see a tag. There should be nothing wrong with asking for help on an odd-angle play like this in situations where it's correctable.

The WORST thing, to my mind, would be an umpire 90 feet away interjecting himself when he wasn't asked. Like Tim said, what makes that guy "right". If two guys see something differently, my money is on the guy on the spot, not the guy 90 feet away. You infer that you've had situations where you KNOW, from 90 feet away, that partner botched a pulled foot. Now switch bodies - you are BU and you KNOW that the ball got there before the foot was pulled. Joe PU, from 90 feet away, disagrees with you, but you know what you saw. Who is right? Again, my money is on BU, with the proviso that he is not too arrogant to ask for help when he DOESN'T know what he saw. (In other words, if he's the type that WILL ask for help on those 1-2 times a year that he's straightlined, then if he DOESN'T ask for help, then he is sure of what he's calling, and I trust him first, ahead of PU).

PS - I think the ARod situation is different. Interference (or OBS) is not necessarily one person's call. It's more like football - whoever sees it calls it.
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