Recently, I was a base umpire for a 16U American League game. R1, and BR slugged a high, arching, fair ball down the first base line. It stayed fair but F9's glove deflected the ball into dead ball territory (dbt). Actually, the ball was deflected into a chain-link fence then rolled under it by about 6". It was retrievable, but none-the-less, dbt. I signaled and called out "dead ball, R1 and BR, take two bases." I sent R1 to third and BR to second. The offensive manager began to hemorrhage right there in the fist-base coach's box!
He said, "That aint no (sic) dead ball. Come on blue, get your head in the game!" I ask the skipper if his car was parked near by, because that's where he was going to spend the rest of the game if he didn't calm down. The game continued and the winning team won and the call make no difference in the final outcome. Whew!!
Later, I looked up 7.05 (f) and damned if it says absolutly nothing about the ball being dead! However, 7.05 (g) says a thrown ball into dbt is dead. Did I screw up? Maybe I should have set out the rest of that game in my car.
Will a few of you smarter guys help me understand?
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Marty
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