Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelVA2000
While at the Evans Academy several years ago an umpire yelled dead ball and one of the instructors ran over to the rolling ball and beat it into the ground with a bat. When the instructor finished he declared that the ball had still been moving but it was dead now.
I don't recall hearing another dead ball called for the remainder of the five weeks.  |
I guess I really don't understand this issue here. To me, and it may be just a softball thing, there is a difference between "time" (a requested/directed suspension of during a lull in play) and "dead ball" (an event-driven stoppage during while a play is in progress). These are two specific actions during a game, so why wouldn't there be two separate mechanics?
MLB Official Rules defines both a Dead Ball and Time separately, so what is the issue?
And these same rules routinely refer to a ball in play as "alive", so I am still confounded by their problem with an umpire declaring a ball "dead".