Quote:
Originally Posted by EsqUmp
It prevents problems. The fact that a strike and an out are signaled the same leads to problems. If I can use a signal/mechanic to prevent a problem, then it is worth using. It has nothing at all to do with the coaches. It has to do with me, as an umpire, communicating what happened. That is what signals are for, after all.
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Yet it hasn't been a problem since 1880 when this rule was instituted in baseball in 1880 until some idiot catcher did not earn his overpaid keep one day and all of a sudden the world is coming to an end if the umpires don't come up with some type of mechanic that provides no additional help other than to provide the umpire absolution.
Do you communicate when a player fails to keep contact with the base when a fly ball is caught? Do you communicate when the runner misses a base? Do you communicate when you know the wrong batter is in the box?
And the two people for whom it is meant are the only two that are in no position to see the signal and probably are no going to hear a "safe" or "no catch" until it is too late to do anything not already in motion.
IMO, it is totally unnecessary and was created as nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction based on a whining player.