[SAump]

The FED ruling requires the umpire to state that the batter's out after a DTS, w/1st base occupied and less than 2 outs. For some reason, it applies and most umpires in my area follow these FED instructions. I always thought it was coaching one team or the other, as Richard Siegel discussed in his post. I know the play was an effective coaching strategy to use against "weaker" opponents. Since implementing the verbal "batter's out" call, I have seen the opportunities diminish for a cheap run to score or for a cheap out to occur on the basepath. I can't figure out if this is a good thing or not, but I suppose the "quality" of the game has improved. This is a situation when asking why I have to do it isn't as important as knowing that I have to do it because of a previous FED ruling.