how is a safe or out call a denial of an appeal? or coaching? it is explicitly an acknowledgment of an appeal as defined by the umpires manual. it's expressly defined as an appeal w/in the rulebook so as not to be ignored or confused.
if an umpire refuses to answer, that is a denial, because the umpires manual expressly states what an umpire is to do, acknowledge the appeal, and rule. it gives NO other choice other than safe or out call. if safe or out calls were coaching, would safe or out be the only choices allowable responses in the umpires manual? the umpires manual provides NO provision otherwise.
now, if an umpire wants to stretch the manual's intent and DELAY, then by choice that umpire would be willfully creating/forcing a do-nothing scenario, that is gaming the manual's intention set forth. that's why doing nothing is a cop-out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakota
I disagree it is a copout. It seems to me signaling "safe" does not communicate what you are trying to communicate. The problem I have with this is you are, it seems to me, denying the "appeal" - that is, signaling that there was no try for second, when in fact there was. If you signal "safe", it is pretty much impossible short of uttering the words "that is not a proper appeal" or some such to avoid telling the teams (however inadvertently and however much you know it to not be true) that the runner is not in jeopardy if she returns to 1B.
Doing nothing, OTOH, merely leaves the ball live and lets the teams decide what to do next.
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