[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by Jim Mills

I know I'm not going to change your mind. The foregoing is food for thought for those who may be "on the fence."

Jim I know you said you do not want to change our minds but let me offer "this" to you and get your opinion.

As umpires we are asked to use good sound judgement on every play. Whether a pitch is a strike / ball, whether a runner is out / safe and we also have to judge intent on plays dealing with interference on a thrown ball.

The point I'm getting at is: Why shouldn't we be afforded the same luxury concerning these technical type rules?

Here's another sitch for you: Game tied last inning 2 outs bases juiced - full count. F1 while on the pitcher's plate (FED Game) or in the 18 ft. circle (OBR) goes to his mouth and does not wipe the ball clean before delivering the pitch.

Are you going to call Ball 4 - Game over?

As a player I have been on both the winning / losing end of games that ended on a technicality and in either instance it didn't feel good. Yes when we won a big game we celebrated, but deep down inside we knew we didn't earn it. Same was true when we lost. We said that team did not beat us.

IMO, there should be a section or at least an UMPIRES ONLY Section dealing specifically with technicalities and allow us to use Our judgement as to when these should be enforced.

As I said, if I have to use my judgement on just about every other aspect of baseball why not the Technicalities as well.

As far as your example of r1 not being able to score on a double by B1 because he wasn't on second IMO, is not a good one. R1 gets on second by either stealing the base meaning he /she beat F1 or F2 or by getting F1 to Commit a "real" balk, like causing him to quick pitch or feint a throw while on the pitcher's plate.

When r1, r2 or r3 are just standing on their respective bases - going nowhere and F1 changes positions illegally - IMO, I do subscribe to the theory Advantage / Disadvantage This is probably cause for a different thread altogether but the Balk rules should be simplifyed and someone should go over these Technical Type Balks with a fine tooth comb to see if they are in fact valid.

Now if F1 while doing something illegally trys to suddenly gain an advantage that's a horse of a different color

I'm not trying to change your mind either but simply point out that as umpires we use judgement all the time and we should be able to use that judgement when enforcing some of these technicalities

Pete Booth




[Edited by PeteBooth on Mar 12th, 2002 at 01:16 PM]