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Originally Posted by DTQ_Blue
I'm a second year blue and learning a lot. In a Middle School game I was BU and had a runner steal second. He slid, didn't ask for time and immediately began to stand up. His left foot was right on the base, as he rose he puts the right foot on the ground about an inch off the base, then lifts the left foot off the base and puts it back down on the base. All the while the F4 is holding the glove/ball on the runner's back, so I called the runner out when the left foot came off the base. Coaches of the batting team were PO'd at me.
After the game my partner asks me about the call. I told him that I can see a runner's foot an inch off the base from 15 feet away and that it was an easy call. Partner tells me 2 interesting things, first it is a better idea not to call runners out in that situation unless everyone in the park can see that they are clearly off the base and second, always call time immediately when a play ends with the runner safe on the ground, i.e., don't allow a play to develop like the one that happened.
Personally I think this runner was just plain careless and it cost him. On the other hand had I done what my partner suggested, nobody gets PO'd.
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Your partner offers bad advise. I never call time when a fielder has the ball anywhere near a runner on the ground who asks for TO to get up. He can either lay there until the fielder gets rid of the ball, or he can climb the base like he has been instructed. Secondly, if we only make the calls that everyone in the park can make then they don't need us. Close calls are where we earn our keep.