Getting It Right - Your Thoughts?

[WindyCityBlue]

Gordon posted a question to me yesterday. He asked when I thought it was appropriate to seek or offer help when umpiring. Rather than bury this somewhere, I thought this was imprtant enough to hear from everyone.

My thoughts on getting the call right: The Big Ten has instructed their football replay officials to use this logic. If 100 people looked at the play, would 100 of them say the call is obvious. I like that...would I have called it differently? If so, then the wheels get going. We have been instructed to allow our partner(s) to offer assistance and provide the same for any call that involves a rules application violation, a dropped ball on a tag or catch, pulled feet or swipe tags, fair/foul/out of play calls, home runs and touched bases.

I have worked many games where I’ve gone out on a fly ball to right center. Knowing that my partner may not be aware of his primary coverage (watching the touch at first, Int/OBS and the play at 2nd) I’ll glance over my shoulder as I run to see that he is moving. If experience tells me that the ball will drop (the fielder is slowing down or I hear the infield yelling “Two”) I will steal another glance. Then I will bust home for my coverage on a an overthrow play at the plate. More than once, I’ve SEEN the runner miss first or be obstructed by the first baseman and my partner was not aware. I have had to listen to coaches scream at him and then beg me to help. Depending on my mood, I’ve been guilty of shrugging my shoulders and saying that I didn’t see it. (Usually when it’s 40 degrees and an early season non-conference high school series.) I can honestly say that I have had a college partner miss this and I had to fix it. We got together after the screamer provided the necessary inducement and talked about what I saw. We got it right and talked about it again between the double header. I’ve worked many games with this guy and hope to work many more. He knows that he can do the same thing for me any day.

Now, back to the countdown. I also think that we should offer help on anything around the dish. Trapped third strikes (if my partner sees me rotate for the play, he knows that I saw it hit the ground!), fouls in the box, fouls off the batter, a CLEAR step out of the box on a bunt, a double hit of the ball with the bat, a hit batter. How many times have you seen the inside pitch buckle the batter and the catcher screens the PU, only to have the pitch hit something (the bat or hands)? I also ask my partners to watch out for balls that can take our eyes away from the play. For example, in a two man system and a runner on second, the batter hits a rope directly at the head of the field umpire. He had his hands on his knees and is only able to fall to the ground to get out of the way. He cannot see the kid touch first, the PU is looking for the touch and advance at third. BUT...a quick glance at first saves our butts when the coach appeals that the kid missed first on his way to second. “We’re going to appeal that touch at first.” “Coach, I saw it and he’s good, but if you want to have him do it, okay.” Nothing hurt and we’ve covered it without embarrassing a partner.

The bottm line is that we are doing it for the good of the game. We are not trying to one up each other or give the coaches another reason to make us look silly. There is nothing wrong with having a coach say, “Get some help on that one.” Get together and decide what needs to be done - sometimes it’s nothing and sometimes you’ll have to say, “Coach, we’ve got the same call.” I like it when my partner comes in and says, “I’ve got the same thing. He was dead.”

IÂ’m sure that there are other plays that warrant help. I have never advocated bangers at any bag or called balls and strikes. A couple of members have said that eventually those calls will be scrutinized, as well. They already are and we have done nothing to change the human factor involved. We have, however, taken steps to correct obvious bad calls and that is a good start. Nothing turns off future umpires, fans and players more than incompetence and arrogance on the field. MLB understands that.