[Fan10]

Originally Posted by jicecone

Bullcrap, call what you think you see and live up to it like Davidson did. I am all for getting it right but, this is one where you have step up to the plate and do your job PERIOD

An MLB umpire would disagree with you.

Originally Posted by Fieldin Culbreth

After the inning, Culbreth still is thinking about Patterson's line drive. "That one I don't feel great about," he tells me. (Amazingly, according to the MLB report, umpires missed a total of three fair-foul calls all of last season.) "I think I got it right, but sometimes you feel less than great about it."

"I thought you had it right," I tell him. "Was there chalk?"

"No, it didn't hit chalk," he says, "but here's the thing: If you ever have some doubt in your mind, you're better off calling it fair than foul. That's because, if another umpire had a better look and comes in and says, 'No, I had it foul,' then you can just return the base runner and the batter continues to hit. But once you call it foul, everybody stops; so if another umpire has it fair, what can you do? You can't just make up where everybody goes."

Link: SI.com - Writers - My Trip to The Show (Part II) (cont.) - Wednesday March 28, 2007 12:45PM