Quote:
Originally Posted by UmpireErnie
Exactly. In my example of the girl who walked off 2B retreating to 1B because she thought it had been a foul ball.. she is certainly not gaining an advantage but it is an obvious violation of the rule. So am I the bad guy for making the call? Should I ignore this violation because she was going back not forward? Should I cut her some slack becuase she is a young player and doesn't know better?
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No, you make the call because once you don't, people will take that as the way it is and when the next guy does make the proper call, s/he takes the heat for you being a nice guy.
IMO, it is the umpire's job to enforce the rules and the coaches' job to teach the players the game. If both are competent in their respective responsibilities, there shouldn't be a problem.
If you don't want the umpires to do the job for which they are being paid, don't hire umpires. Asking the umpire to do otherwise is not fair to the umpire or the teams. Its like giving a soldier a gun to defend someone/thing, but no ammunition or a firefighter a hose to extinguish a forest fire, but no water.