[Dakota]

Originally Posted by NCASAUmp

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with you somewhat on this...

What we've got here is a fustercluck due to two umpires making a bad visual call. However, it is NOT up to the runners to know that ONLY an IFF was called when two umpires gave the dead ball signal. Maybe the batter's foot was completely out of the box. Maybe, somehow, the ball contacted the bat twice. Maybe a plane was about to crash land on the outfield fence. Runners can't see these things, and so they rely upon us umpires to make the right call, both verbal and visual.

I'm a particularly loud umpire, and despite this fact, there are times when verbal calls are not heard due to dozens of spectators and participants yelling a million different things. This is why verbal calls are almost always accompanied by visual calls, especially for situations such as these. When the wrong visual call is given, runners are placed in jeopardy. At this point, the Offensive Coach should have protested the game...

I'm with you up to that last sentence. Unfortunately, poor umpire signals is not a protestable situation. Neither is failure to apply rule 10-3-C protestable (none of rule 10 is protestable). They got jobbed, but other than "protest" to the UIC and hope he oversteps his authority and overrules his crew, they have no real recourse.