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Originally Posted by RichMSN
This is not clear, Daryl. I am not suspending play. I am merely clearing the plate.
Before you come back with something like "would you let the pitcher pitch," let me say that the answer is no, just like when I'm clearing a bat or waiting for a batter to get set in the box. Good umpires don't hold their hands up and suspend play while a batter is digging in. Why is this different?
For any other cause could include 200 other things that I want to make up, too. It's a catch all that provides support for the umpire to call time IF HE WANTS TO. It certainly doesn't say that it's required to do it if play isn't suspended. Cause a 2 second sweep of the plate is not suspending play, not in my world.
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Finally, someone has responded to my rule citations. I agree it is a catch all phrase which leaves it open to abuse. I respect your decision to not include sweeping the plate. Respect because we are both making a decision by considering a rule and either accepting or rejecting certain optional parameters to come to our decision.
I cited instructions from 2008 NF Umpire Manual pg 19 #26 entitled "Keep the plate clean". The wording involved says to minimalize when you clean the plate to keep the game moving and I believe we both agree to that. I think we can both agree also that a bigger abuse would be an umpire who calls time 50 times a game to sweep the plate.
While I do call time to sweep the plate I can assure you that in 27 years of umpiring I only do so maybe 3 times a game and always only when th plate has become completely covered or near so. Sometimes I just use my foot to quickly dust the plate as I walk by it (whch is becoming an accepted practice). I do not call time to do that nor do I turn my bck to players. The rest of the time I use the natural dead ball times to clean the plate.
I agree with you in the other situations you described above that time should not be called. But in those situations I can do my job and not turn my back on a live ball. The proper mechanics stated by umpire manual to clean the plate does make me turn my back to players and therefore I briefly declare ball dead.