Quote:
Originally Posted by waltjp
If were told during the plate conference that there are spots in the outfield that would allow a ball to pass through or under a fence we make a point of telling the managers that the outfielder should raise his hand so the base ump can go out and check. We also tell the managers that the runners should keep running - we'll reset them if the ball is indeed, out of play. Our final statement is that if the fielder reaches for the ball after raising his hand we're going to judge that the ball is still in play.
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And that's all correct mechanics. But that's not in dispute.
I believe that the question in the OP was: what do you do when an umpire (improperly) yells "TIME" after the player reaches through the fence and picks up the ball?
Bob has mentioned the FED rule about "fixing" situations where an umpire's reversed call puts a team at a disadvantage. I am not sure, however, that we can apply that principle here: it's not possible to reverse a call of "TIME." The OP is different from the casebook play where R1 steals, PU calls ball 4 on a check swing, R1 slows down and is tagged, then BU overrules and calls the batter out on strikes. That's a clear case of a reversed call putting one team at a disadvantage.
I was originally in favor of this ruling, but Bob reminded us of the proper phrasing of the relevant principle. Now I think we have to match the OBR ruling: the umpire screwed up by calling "TIME," but that made the ball dead, and runners cannot advance on a dead ball. Runner back to 2B, umpire open wide.