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Originally Posted by Andy
Sitting around the umpire room this weekend at a tournament, this situation came up. Evidently, this play I'm about to describe actually happened in a Men's ASA National tournament several years ago in the Seattle area. I don't know whether that is true or not, but it did make for interesting discussion in the room. Anyway, here's the play:
R1 on third, R2 on first, no outs, ground ball hit to F4.
F4 fields ball and takes a step toward R2 to apply a tag. R2 stops and retreats toward first base. R1 is running to home.
BU calls, "DEAD BALL", R2 is out for backing up between the bases. Obviously an incorrect call.
The question is - how do you, as the umpire, fix this?
The way I heard the story, the coaches from both teams got together during the umpires discussion and decided what outcome they would "accept" (as if that mattered!)
I was also told that the play was sent to Merle Butler for his ruling. Before I relay what I heard, I'm interested to see what you all think.
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If you see this as the umpire placing a team in jeopardy, it's the defense. With R2 running backward and BR headed for 1st, they had a pretty sure out, maybe two. With no outs and F4 chasing R2, you probably had to judge that R1 would score, assuming F4 made no play on R1.
Probably missing something, or it wouldn't be such a mystery/legend.