Question to Warren on His Ethics VI

[Phil Vivenzio]

Warren:
After reading your article on ethics, particularly to tag no tag, I had an interesting play during a senior little league tournament game. It is a 4 person crew and I was the base umpire at 2b. Situation: Offensive team has 1b and 3b and they are up by 1 run with 2 outs. The runner on 1st attempts to steal, I'm on the inside of the diamond at a good angle to maker the call. The runner gets a bad jump, but the catcher's throw gets there in plenty of time, but is very high. The runner legally slides curving his body away from the fielder as the fielder is coming down to make tag. I was shielded from the tag, but because I didn't hear or see tag and since the defense didn't make a good throw, I called the runner safe. My partner at third base saw the good slide and told me I made the right call. I did get a small argument from the fielder which I expected, but nothing out of line. I was stopped by the head of the losing team and asked how could I call the runner safe, and I explained it exactly as above. Was my thought process correct in making this call?

Regards
Phil Vivenzio