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Old Tue Apr 29, 2008, 08:55am
His High Holiness His High Holiness is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 345
Like I said, I was not the assignor or the umpire so I do not know all the details of what happened. It was not even a game in my association. (Old assignors still talk to other assignors. )

I do not know any of the details of what happened in the press box other than the PA announcer was the bad guy.

The BU refused to make any call. He was new and had little experience but knew better than to call R2 out without consulting with the plate man. The two of them got together and while they were conferring, R2 and the pitcher got into a verbal confrontation and were both ejected. I am not sure exactly what their confrontation was about but we can assume it was about the missed base.

The defensive manager (home team) began yelling that he had signalled the pitcher prior to the offending PA announcement to make an appeal. The pitcher and the dugout loudly backed him up. The parents/fans from both teams joined in the action.

The offensive manager calmly approached the umpires and asked to talk privately. The defensive manager asked to join the conversation and was told to instead get the crowd under control. The defensive manager was eventually ejected but I do not know if it was failure to get the crowd under control or insisting that he was going to make an appeal even before the PA announcement. Anyway, the offensive manager told the umpires that he had seen the missed base and asked them to call R2 out so they could move on. The visiting team had a poor record and the game did not matter anyway. The offensive manager was on probation for previous problems with his behavior and that of his players and he could not afford any more negative situations. He was not sure if he could survive the ejection of R2 and did not want any more fuel on the fire. He asked for a minute with his players in the dugout to prepare them before the umpires announced their decision. He was in the first base dugout and acknowledged that most of the dugout had seen the BR miss first base.

While the offensive manager was in the dugout with his players, the AD for the home team walked on the field and asked the umpires to stop the game. The umpires never had to make the call and everybody went home with a little encouragement from the police who had arrived by this time.

I have no idea how the game was resolved.

This is why umpires should be well seasoned before they move up. Rules knowledge, bionic ball/strike - safe/out calling, and gazelle like pro mechanics do not prepare the umpire for crap like this. Regrettably, crap like this is normal in baseball. The only thing that saved these umpires was that two adults happened to show up for the game - the visiting manager and the home team AD.

Peter
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