[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by greymule
In the case book play, it is obvious that the umpire granted time. Nowhere in the test question does it say that time was granted. The umpire might well do as CecilOne says and caution the manager that he will have to remove the pitcher.

Nope, that isn't going to happen. An umpire should alert the manager/coach/whatever of how many conferences they have exhausted after the conference as they are returning to the dugout (or coach's box if offensive). You do it on the way back to the dugout because they probably have other things on their mind if you tell them while entering the field and they may not hear you. It's their job to manage their conferences. However, that doesn't mean that I will not say to the coach, "okay, coach, you want to take that fourth (or whatever) conference now?" as a measure of preventive umpiring without coaching the manager.

Just because the manager says, "Time out, Blue. I want to go out on the field and confer with my players," doesn't mean a defensive conference is to be charged.

Well, unless s/he informs the umpire of a pitching change prior to crossing the base line, yeah it does. For that matter, it doesn't even have to be the coach and s/he doesn't even have to be outside of the dugout. If you check POE #11, you will note that if a defensive player calls time to approach and receive directions from the dugout, this is to be considered a charged conference.

I agree that ASA probably meant to duplicate the case book question but simply copied it incorrectly.

[Edited by IRISHMAFIA on Mar 14th, 2003 at 12:35 PM]