bniu:
I had a similar situation a few years ago in a USSSA girls' fastpitch tournament. The age group for the game was 12U.
Left-handed batter bunts the ball downward. The ball strikes the HP and rolls forward in to fair territory and stops about six inches in front of HP. The B/R runs to first, I side step to the left and point toward fair territory, pumping my arm three or four times, while F2 just stands looking at me. The B/R reaches first base and the catcher then picks up the ball, and her coach comes running out of the dugout yelling time.
I grant the D-HC request for time and here is how our conversation went:
D-HC: "What's the call blue?" Note: USSSA umpires wear
red,
.
ME: "What do you mean coach?"
D-HC: "Wasn't the ball foul?"
ME: "No, it was fair."
D-HC: "Then why didn't you tell my catcher it was fair?"
ME: "I did."
D-HC: "No you didn't."
ME: "I sure did coach."
D-HC: "You never said anything."
ME: "I know I didn't say anything coach. I pointed toward fair terrritory."
D-HC: "My catcher didn't know what you were doing. You are supposed to tell her the ball was fair."
ME: "I did tell her it was fair. I pointed toward fair territory."
D-HC: "You have to tell her it was fair."
ME: "No coach. The rules/mechanics state that the umpire will verbalize a foul ball while pointing toward foul territory for a foul ball and will only point toward fair territory for a fair ball. And that is what I did."
D-HC: "She doesn't know that. You have to tell her it was fair."
ME: "I did coach, remember. The B/R knew it was a fair ball. We need to play ball now."
I know I let the conversation go long but the game had a time limit, the D team was getting beat pretty badly, and the temperature was in the mid-90's F. If D-HC wanted to chat, meaning I could stand there and not have to expend any energy in that kind of heat, who am I to not chat with him,
.
MTD, Sr.