PU Calls Bunt Foul - I think

[mcrowder]

Scary.

The football situation was a complete gaff. Football has never had procedures for coaches protesting rulings on the field that required replays, and Georgia put one in. It backfired on them badly. (I officiate football as well - so I'm familiar with the sitch)

However, baseball/softball ALWAYS has had these procedures. To remove them is an extreme overreaction.

On the FOUL call - one of my pet peeves is an umpire that calls it too early. A ball rolling foul (even 3 feet foul) is NOT foul until it hits something or is stopped. Too many umpires call it far too early. Every once in a while, one hits a little rock and starts heading back fair.

About 5 years ago on a VERY windy day I had a very smart 1B notice the ball slowing to a near stop, but not stopping, and the wind started to blow it back toward fair territory. (He was actually smart enough to look up at the runners before deciding not to pick it up). We had R2 and R1 at the time, and I did not call it foul. Batter was unmoved from the box, runners were camped on their bases as the ball rolled back fair. Easy Triple play. Batter was STILL in the box when he was called out for the 3rd out. (Actually, the team was probably very well coached all around, as F5 was standing on third base, ready for a throw, when many teams' thirdbasemen would have been lollygagging back to their normal positions)