Runner gets careless when standing after slide
 

I'm a second year blue and learning a lot. In a Middle School game I was BU and had a runner steal second. He slid, didn't ask for time and immediately began to stand up. His left foot was right on the base, as he rose he puts the right foot on the ground about an inch off the base, then lifts the left foot off the base and puts it back down on the base. All the while the F4 is holding the glove/ball on the runner's back, so I called the runner out when the left foot came off the base. Coaches of the batting team were PO'd at me.

After the game my partner asks me about the call. I told him that I can see a runner's foot an inch off the base from 15 feet away and that it was an easy call. Partner tells me 2 interesting things, first it is a better idea not to call runners out in that situation unless everyone in the park can see that they are clearly off the base and second, always call time immediately when a play ends with the runner safe on the ground, i.e., don't allow a play to develop like the one that happened.

Personally I think this runner was just plain careless and it cost him. On the other hand had I done what my partner suggested, nobody gets PO'd.

i havent seen this in years, but if the kid being an idiot and pops off the base while you are looking at him, i have an out. middle school is a different story, but you will probably find that most of the time at higher levels, runners are going to ask for time before even getting up. if not then, they are going to ask for it once they get up.

as for always immediately calling time, if you are going to do this, you must be careful. myself, i tend to wait until a runner asks for time unless F4 or F6 come down on top of a runner or theres a little mixup. if you are going to give time to runners immediately, make sure you know if there are other runners on base and what they are doing. if you get in the habit of just calling a guy safe then 2 seconds later calling time, you might have forgotten about the runner on 3rd who is now halfway to the plate as you are calling time. that would lead to a much bigger ****house than calling a kid out for taking his big toe off the base while dusting off.

Your partner offers bad advise. I never call time when a fielder has the ball anywhere near a runner on the ground who asks for TO to get up. He can either lay there until the fielder gets rid of the ball, or he can climb the base like he has been instructed. Secondly, if we only make the calls that everyone in the park can make then they don't need us. Close calls are where we earn our keep.

I agree. Don't listen to this bad advise. There are MANY umpires that hide behind stuff like that so as to avoid as much controversy as they can.

Think about integrity.

We get it already. You don't agree with the decision to be
a replacement umpire. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Opinions are like.... well you know the rest I'm sure. If you
feel the need to criticize one's choice, why not send a PM ?
If not, sooner or later, every thread on this board will be about
nothing else other than those you term "scabs'. Who exactly is
looking for an audience? The one who replies to a thread, or the
one who jumps in off-topic, just to take a shot at someone?

Why do all the threads around here lately get hijacked into a debate about the strike? Enough allready.

Now, back to the thread at hand. The only place I have ever seen time outs called on the bases after every slide play was in slow pitch softball. Here in hardball, don't call time out everytime a player needs to get up after a slide. Let them learn how to get up and maintain contact with the base.

When a player slides, and and asks for time, I don't ever automatically grant it unless he's injured, or the base has come loose. I had a 3rd base coach one time, after a play there, say "time out" and told his runner to stand up. F5 alertly tagged him out. The coach complained, " blue, I called time out!!". I explained, "coach, you ask for time, I call it".

If the fielder is standing there with his glove on the runner, trying to "trick" the runner into standing up, I just tell the fielder, "get the ball to back to the pitcher and lets play!!". Unnessecary time outs just make the game longer.

Bob P.

Semi-related to the thread: I've had a number of rec league teams try that tactic, even to the point of the coaches telling the players, "Call time so you can get the ball to the pitcher." I typically respond to that by telling the catcher that I'm not going to grant time because it slows things down. Word makes its way around the defense fairly quickly after that. Got duped on one a couple of weeks ago, thought the request for time was to check on a fielder, then realized they'd pulled one over on me. I watched that very closely for the rest of the game, didn't let it happen again.

[QUOTE=DTQ_Blue]I'm a second year blue and learning a lot. In a Middle School game I was BU and had a runner steal second. He slid, didn't ask for time and immediately began to stand up. His left foot was right on the base, as he rose he puts the right foot on the ground about an inch off the base, then lifts the left foot off the base and puts it back down on the base. All the while the F4 is holding the glove/ball on the runner's back, so I called the runner out when the left foot came off the base. Coaches of the batting team were PO'd at me.



BUSH league..F4 holding glove on runner after runner has aquired base is school yard crap Tell F4 "let him up..lets play ball" no time out..no muss ...no fuss

Baseball is a live ball sport. You should not call time out in a sitch like this.

Hope we're being unanimous enough for you that your partner was off base here.