Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeStrybel
Bob, kick this one around:
No one on, one out. Batter swings at the pitch and the ball goes down, rolling fifteen feet or so to where the F5 (playing in) grabs it in fair territory. PU IMMEDIATELY signals fair and takes a step or two towards the ball. F5 makes the throw to F3. The batter is hopping up and down on one foot and the HC is declaring that the ball was foul, off the batter's foot while in the box. You see the batter's reaction and had watched the ball hit the his foot, or at least the best you could see from 100+ feet away. Your PU gave an adamant signal IMMEDIATELY. Do you kill the play? Do you wait for him to ask your help? Agree with him or give what you had?
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Been there, done that. Both ways. Bob is exactly correct here.
Seen the ball clearly go off of Batter, I take two steps in, wait for partner to react and kill the play. You kill it quick, loudly and confidently and never, not once, has it been questioned.
Also, did not clearly see the ball hit the batter and neither did PU but you immeadiately have a dancing batter in front of you. Use some judgement man. Only seen Derek Jeter last year fake getting hit by the ball and he makes a living trying to get on base. Your average ballplayer is not going to jump around like a kangaroo unless he gets hit. And yes, I have even seen batters get hit and take off for first, theres an easy out on a dumb ball player.
In a perfect game if you have to go to your partner 2-3 times during the game, your going to take crap. There is no carte blanc method that works perfectly. Just look at MLB. There is a fine line between knowing when to act like an arrogant arse and when to act like a well groomed team. If you both work to get your own calls right and communicate only when necessary your going to look like the latter. There is no black and whte answer here.
Just remember though, when you, or your partner screw up, you both look bad.