I just read this whole thread and saw a whole slew of misrepresentations of what I had written. I wrote several things but I never said "Call it like they do in the bigs" in that thread.
Here is what I actally wrote in the original thread:
"If you don't see it in MLB, don't allow it in your games. I never saw a batter deliberately swing at air in MLB to forestall an intentional walk, so I won't allow it where I work. It's that simple."
I am a proponent of calling a game the way that they call it in the bigs. I believe that (except in safety situations) calling it the way that people see the game on TV prevents all sorts of problems. I was trying to make the point in my quote above that you would never see this situation in MLB. Therefore there is no way that I can design a big league call for that situation. "Call it like they do in the bigs" does not apply here.
But what I CAN DO is prevent it from ever happening again. If I had ruled a strike, some other joker whould have tried it again (like maybe on the next pitch). By calling "ball, no he didn't go", I prevented it from happening again (at least for anyone that knows me.) In other words, I have made my games resemble a big league game as opposed to some bush league cluster boink (to borrow a phrase from Moose)
This is the same reason that I would not allow R1 to run out in right field in order to allow R3 to score. I won't allow it because I have never seen the play on TV. In that thread, writers expounded endlessly on the rules as to whether it was legal. I said "forget the rules" and then I expounded on ways to prevent it without getting the game protested.
Finally, I totally discount Garth's response from the WUA. He has an unsigned ruling from someone working in public relations. They have no choice but to answer the way that they did especially given the way question was worded. My answer is too out of the box. The best baseball knowledge is gathered from top umpires one on one. Rarely will they go on record with something that is unusual. Certainly they would never go on record coming out of public relations except strict by the rules.
In my original post, I was not totally clear as to the batter's actions. I later cleared it up and as I recall, it gave Garth pause as to how he would have handled the situation if he had to deal with it in a real game where the next pitch could be a beanball. To clarify:
3-0 on an intentional walk. The next pitch is 2 feet outside and high. The batter takes a full cut at air as if the ball was hip high, right down the middle. He did not reach out at the ball as is implied in Garth's question.
My assignor approved of the call. His opinion is more important than the
PR department of the WUA. He pays me, they don't. WUA members do not ever have to deal with this situation. Therefore, they can pontificate to the public in email all they want without having to worry about what would happen if they ever faced this.
Peter