Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ
If I echo a balk call that I didn't see, and the coach comes to me to explain, what will I tell him?
If I see the balk but my partner beats me to the call, I echo it. If I don't see it, I don't echo it.
JJ
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I've heard other umpires in my assoc say the same thing. I always ask them ... so if you echo calls that you see and agree with, but don't echo if you see the situation but don't agree with ... aren't you tipping off the other team that at least one of the umpires disagreed with the initial call?
To my mind, and as I've been trained, in baseball, softball, and football - echoing is almost ALWAYS a bad thing. The only things that should be echoed are things that stop play (dead ball, foul ball, a whistle in football - and even there there's not 100% agreement, etc) and even then, you're only echoing the fact that the ball is dead, not the call itself.