Quote:
Originally Posted by Eastshire
It's always been my impression that crew chief is, well, the chief of the crew. The one responsible for leadership and administration (that is the duties you describe in the second paragraph). I don't see that as being inherently incompatible with with the plate umpire being the UIC of a particular game.
Until this thread, it never occurred to me that the PU was not the de jure UIC in the MLB, even though it's quite clear that the crew chief is involved in major game administration issues.
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It is not necessarily "incompatible". However, it is simply not how it is done in practice on the professional level. The crew chief is in complete control of the game on the professional level.
I'll give you another example: In the late 1990's there was an MLB game in which two different base umpires made two different calls on the same play. (Two umpires went out on a fly ball and one ruled "catch" and the other ruled "no catch". There were runners on base. Hence, it was a major SNAFU.) The other base umpire (not the plate umpire) was the crew chief. It was the crew chief who got the umpires together (not the plate umpire) and who ultimately decided the ruling on the play after consulting with his crew.