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Season before last there was a play in a Mets/Marlinx(?) game where Todd Zeille was attempting to return to 3B while his teammate had already advanced to 3B. In returning, the tag attempt was applied to Zeille and then immediately to the following runner who was already standing on 3B. While the umpire declared out the following runner, Zeille felt he had been called out for not reaching the base in time, left the base, and entered the dugout.
Tony Perez, the coach of the Marlins then questioned the umpire as to WHO was declared out on the tag, and in learning that it was the following runner, he requested that Zeille be declared out for abandonment. The crew conferenced and decided to do just that---resulting in 2 outs on the play.
Mets manager, Bobby Valentine, then complained that 2 outs had not been "earned" on the play, and he asked the crew to do what was right. He then left them for their decision.
The crew then conferenced a 2nd time and apparently agreed with Valentine as their final decision was to return Zeille to 3B allowing only one out gained on the play. According to the press, the confusion was caused by the poor mechanics of the umpire in not allowing the players to know which player was declared out on the tags. Certainly the final decision supported that summary of the play---with an effective ruling that the poor mechanics by an official should not be cause to allow an unearned out. Like it or not, that's what occurred.
In your play, the umpire should have been highly demonstrative of his decision of whether the line drive was caught or not. That allows the players to then adjust their running responsibilities based on the call. Whether the ball was actually caught or not is irrelevant---it's the umpire's judgment of whether that ball was caught that really counts---and in such close plays he must be highly demonstrative of his catch/no catch decision.
Now, I'm not saying it's correct per the rules in protecting R2 from his leaving the base thinking he was out...........
I'm only pointing out that there is MLB precedent that an umpire's poor mechanics has been reason NOT to call out such a runner who left the base when such action, indeed, was a result of an umpire's poor mechanics during the play.
Freix
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