"Help" Plays

[BlueLawyer]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I do not completely agree with this statement. A lot of times coaches try to suggest "you can help him right." They need to know that it is not in the mechanic and you are not in a position to see what your partner saw (of course within limits). Sometimes the first thing a coach might say to you is about what you are watching and what your partner(s) are watching. I would not go into a detailed dissertation, but you can speak about what you saw and why you did not see something.

Peace

Rut:

Here is the last situation I had where I tried to explain mechanics in a game to a coach:

1 out, R1, R2. Batter hits a towering fly ball to left center. It's night and the park I'm working in doesn't have particularly good lights. F8 has to go chase the ball, and falls down in the process. I was at "C", and ran up to the edge of the dirt to get a look. It didn't help much. I saw F8 on his rear end, a white object on the ground next to him. He makes a scooping motion with his throwing hand and then the ball comes in. I rule "no catch."

Defensive coach calls time and comes out to ***** about the call. "What did you see?" I explain the above to him. "You didn't see the ball on the ground next to him, you saw his white shoe." (Begging, of course for me to ask-"What kind of dumba$$ buys his kids white shoes to wear in baseball?"- I digress. ) Then he tells me that I have to get out in the outfield to get closer to the call. "Coach, in the two man system, I never leave the infield grass from inside the diamond." "Well that's wrong, Steve. We pay you to make the right call; get out there and make it." A few more comments before I get to "That's all Coach. You've made your point; it's time to play."

Maybe you work with smarter/better coaches than I do. I have two or three, tops, who understand or want to understand umpire mechanics and why we are where we are when we are. In this Einstein's case, had I run to the outfield, like he wanted, I probably would have crashed into R2- which is the exact reason for the rule of not leaving the infield.

There is a law of diminishing returns in discussing/arguing with coaches. It is more art than science, and I do my best to answer reasonable questions reasonably. But I cannot see the benefit in saying to a coach that I know the two-man rotation/mechanic and I was where I was supposed to be on that play, especially when he's pissed off at me about the call he disagrees with. How do you handle it?

Strikes and outs!