Quote:
Originally Posted by PtotheB
First night of fall ball last night. Pop up in the vicinity of third base. F5 makes the catch in foul territory, I say "Out" give a hammer and turn back towards the plate. 3B coach says "Hey Blue" and I stop and turn around. "How can that be an out? It was in foul territory." I give him the wrinkled up face WTF look for about 5 seconds. He gets a sheepish look on his face and says, "Oh man. Can we pretend I never said that?"
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Had one a couple weeks ago, similar to this. Long hit down the 3B foul line, stays in the air. LF running like a bat out of hell towards it. I'm PU (slow-pitch, 2-umpire), and running down the 3B line to watch where the ball is contacted. The ball is clearly over foul territory when LF tries to catch it, instead it hits his glove and falls to the ground. Of course, LF is in fair territory (I know, but bear with me). I give the foul ball call. Offense goes nuts, saying that LF was in fair territory therefore the ball has to be fair. I explained to them that it all depends on the ball's location when it's contacted by LF. They don't believe me, so they went to my partner. He confirmed my ruling. They didn't believe us, so they started talking to the other umpires after the game, and of course, ruling affirmed (why do I feel like it was court system night???). Finally the coach of the team said "That is the stupidest rule in softball!"
I had the same team the next week, and the coach came up and apologized, saying that he had called the softball office (which coordinates all the leagues in Omaha) and they had confirmed that my ruling was correct because that was the rule. Ahhhh...the joys of being right.
