For Moose and others: Change the call?

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by Dave Hensley
That's not the criteria that Carl applied when I noted the similarity between Moose's play and Exception #5. He said the difference was that Moose's play was a FORCE PLAY, which is not reversible, as opposed to a dropped ball on a tag play, which is. You're now saying that Moose's play would have been reversible if he had not noticed the dropped ball at all?

Things don't seem to be as unanimous as previously postulated.

(Oh, by the way, he saw the ball on the ground and called OUT, not SAFE.)

A prevarication (Aussie definition), Mr Hensley. The unanimity I postulated earlier was with specific regard to the lack of support for Moose's actions following his booted call. I postulated no unanimity concerning any other "things", including the validity of Carl's list of legally reversible calls! That list may certainly be unanimously accepted, but I have simply never postulated one way or the other on the subject.

I saw where Carl indicated to you that the difference between his legally reversible call and Moose's irreversible call was that Moose's was a force play, not a tag play. That's certainly true, especially if we are talking about a dropped ball. That implies that the ball was in the glove at some point and so on a force play you are left with a judgement call as to whether the base was properly tagged before the ball was dropped. It is not necessarily still true if we are talking about a ball that was never caught in the first place, as was apparently the case in Moose's original play.

Furthermore, Carl's list speaks to calls which may be legally reversed by, or after consultation with, other officials. I would have no problem with Moose immediately reversing his own call the moment he noticed the ball in the dirt, and before he was approaced by the coach/manager. That's just a part of the normal decision-making process. It would be lousy timing but it would still be perfectly proper, IMHO. I don't see that as against the spirit and intent of OBR 9.02(a) in the same way that getting help from another official after a call has already been made, and after being approached by a coach/manager, most certainly would be.

Either way, though, I am prepared to concede Carl's superior knowledge of the Professional reasoning behind allowing this call to be reversed on the tag play but not the force play. After all, it was the fact it was a Professional interpretation that made this point authoritative, not that either Carl Childress or I agreed or disagreed with each other, the ruling or its logic. Of course, I certainly DO agree with Carl's list and its logic but that is beside the point.

(BTW, the typo you pointed out has been corrected in the original post. Yet another nit well picked.)

Cheers,

[Edited by Warren Willson on Feb 8th, 2001 at 12:09 AM]