[greymule]

On what basis do you say that " if he does not call timeout, timeout is implied" ? I have never seen this in any manual.

I haven't seen it in a baseball book, but ASA softball 10-4-B:

"The plate umpire will call time when they leave [sic] the umpires [sic] position to brush the plate or to perform other duties not directly connected with the calling of plays."

As I remember, there's a case play or test question in which the PU steps to the side to show and state the count, and the runner on 1B breaks for 2B. The ruling is that the umpire's leaving his regular position to perform duties created a time out, and the runner has to go back.

In baseball, I think that the calling of time out to perform duties may be a habit that stems from doing a lot of one-man games. For example, many of the rec games around here are one-man, and if you don't have a BU to watch things, you tend to protect yourself with time outs. These habits can carry over unnecessarily when there's a partner.

I know that this has been true in college softball, where the experienced umps often remind their partners (many of whom also do one-man rec games) not to call time out unnecessarily. I was doing it, too. A few years ago, my partner asked me between innings, "You do a lot of one-man games, don't you?" When I said that I did, he said, "Don't call time out every time you turn your back. I'll cover the runners. At this level, they know the rules."