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Originally Posted by WestMichBlue
Why call the obvious?
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What may be obvious to PU may not be obvious to the defender heading full speed toward a fence or concrete wall
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The ball comes off the bat straight over the backstop and you are throwing up the hands and yelling FOUL or FOUL BALL?
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No, I'm looking for the ball along with the catcher. And I will probably verbalize foul for runners or BR, but be reaching in my bag for another ball to hand to the catcher
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A pulled ball ricochets off the dugout and you need to announce it?
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Again, if runners are moving, why not? Why wait for them to get to the next base to wait and tell them they have to go back.
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You don't verbalize a swinging strike; you don't sound off on routine and very obvious outs at 1B.(now you want to argue volume?) Do you call out SAFE every time a runner touches home if there is no play there? Why change simply because it is a obvious foul ball?
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You are correct, well trained umpires are taught adjust (not ignore) the swinging strike and the obvious out, just as we were trained to call foul ball when a ball becomes foul.
What is obvious to an umpire may not be obvious to the players and coaches. I believe at certain levels it also creates an amount of assumption and laziness. The umpire "believes" it is obvious a ball is leaving play, reaches in the bag for another ball and all of a sudden, the RF snags the fly ball the umpire "thought" was obvoiusly leaving the field of play.
As previously noted, WHY is this such a big deal to some people? What harm does it cause to the game? Other than another official, does anyone even notice the call is being made on an obvious foul ball?
If an umpire doesn't call a ball 50' out of play "foul", I'm not going to worry about it, just as I won't worry about it if s/he does. Voice inflection and showboating aside, I don't see any problem here.