Whiskers_ump,
I could not see the PU's face, but I would assume that he was off in LA LA land, enjoying the weather. ;-) I don't know what he was thinking, could have been he was looking for the ball and then got distracted with all the commotion. Could have been he knew it was a fair ball and was watching the play develop. He did rule R3 out at home. I am not sure why he didn't have a discussion with his partner and "rectify" the situation. Whatever it was, I had a valuable lesson reinforced. It is not merely enough to pass the rules exam and put the rule book away. The art of being an umpire requires constance reinforcement and study of the rules and their applications, in order to be what we are supposed to be.
I am a rookie ump and all this brings about a question that I hadn't thought of. . .If I am the PU and my partner makes a FUBAR call like this. Can I conference with him and see if he will change is call (NOT overrule him!)? Or can he even nullify a foul ball call? We exist to do the right thing for the game and the kids, Doesn't that give us an obligation to fix this screwup?
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jumpmaster al
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