Did I blow the call?
 

OK here's my situation. Ball hit down first baseline rolling. The ball touches inside corner nearest foul line on the front of the base and jumps into foul territory. Ball is never touched by a defender. What do we have fair or foul ball???????????????:confused:

Fair ball.

PABlue,

Point dramatically in the direction of fair territory, and say nothing.

JM

How do we know if you blew the call or not if you don't tell us what you did? :D


sneaky, sneaky...

:o I BLEW it!!!!:o I SAW it, I CALLED it and I SOLD it and BOTH coaches belived it!!!!!!! I guess its a good thing I can sell a call,only it's now very embarrasing to have to tell the coachs that I BLEW the call. At least it didn't make a difference in the game. In the first play while I was calling foul F3 picked up the ball and stepped on first. On the next pitch the hitter struck out. Third out in both cases. I hate it when I do something like that.

It Happens
 

Remember it and move on. We have all done things we want to forget but from my expierence the ones I screwed up are the ones that I will always remember.

:D No worries, mate. Put it in your kit bag and move on :)


1B, 2B, and 3B are in fair territory, so any ball that 'bounds' into them is fair upon contact, as if it had touched a fielder over fair ground.

...but, just curious, why are you going to tell the coaches? If they care, they'll let YOU know the next time you see them ;)

After all, do they tell you later on about their coaching mistakes in previous games? :D

LMAN,

I hate to be so "nitpicky", but I've got a little issue regarding ONE of the bases in terms of "...so any ball that 'bounds' into them is fair upon contact..." - because we won't know just yet whether it's fair or foul.

PABlue,

If it makes you feel any better, I made a coaching mistake once. ;)

JM

Three are bases and one is a plate?

he-he!

Tim.

Tell the coach you saw it hit a rock, if he asks. Blues are never wrong!

:rolleyes: I love it because these coaches have had me as a umpire for a few years now and they didn't even blink! That shows you how many I blow for them or give them a wrong rule interp they've grown to TRUST me ,now I could proabably tell them that a runner DOES have to slide at every base!!!! :eek:

Touche, JM, I fixed my post.

PA, I am amazed that any place has coaches who trust Blue to be right on a rule interp. You are blessed :D


I bet they even ask you for 'time' before running onto the field....... :D

To tell you the truth I haven't had ANYONE run onto the field since my first year umpiring for this area SIX years ago. That gentelman was a personal friend of mine and he was quickly and firmly kicked to the curb. After coaches saw that I would do this to someone that was my friend they never even tried to cross that line.
At my plate meeting I always tell the coaches if they have a question to call time and come out and DISCUSS it with me.Yelling and screaming I won't put up with ,it's demeaning to ME the GAME and it shows the kids the wrong kind of behavior. I have not had one problem in the last six years with this area.:D

A couple years ago I was doing a 15 yr old game with the orange safety base.
hard grounder down 1st base line hits the top corner of the white bag and goes into foul ground down the right field line.
I yell "FAAiir" catching myself about halfway into my brain fart call.
everyone stops, runner stops, casually walks back to the plate. I'm looking around no one is reacting at all. Everyone assumed I called foul and no one argued. Of course I continued on like I called foul as well.
I said everyone, not quite, as I hand a new ball to the catcher the batter, quietly and politely says as he steps back into the box "Didn't that hit the base blue"? Yea it did son, the orange one. "oh ok"
That's one mechanic I don't have to worry about messing up again.

Screwing up a call and then learning from it is a far better teacher than any case book sitch you read about because there is an emotion tied to the experience that makes it tough to forget, as Wsttex said, you tend to remember your screwups.
If that's the worst call you make this summer so be it.
And I agree with Lman
Let a sleeping dog sleep.

So your choice are

1) Tell him you blew it

2) Lie


And you'd choose lie?


I don't want you umpiring one of my games.

To think that not more than a couple of months ago I credited you with having a sense of humor, Rich...........



Tim.

As Mark Twain said, you can make a mistake only once - after that it's a bad habit.

"Nurse, hand me the sense of humor transplant, STAT!" ;)

Rich,

Please don't tell me you are just becoming aware of this double standard.

Coaches are "rats" because all that motivates them is the crazed desire to win.

Yet, an umpire who blows a call (and KNOWS he blew it), will lie to extract himself from the situation.

To me, if an umpire has blatantly blown a call:

1. If the nature of the blown call is such that the bell can be unrung, so to speak, he should do so. Yes, yes, yes - I'm aware of the "sacred" laundry list of calls that can't be changed. But that list is only a "thumbrule". As a practical matter, an umpire should always try to find a way to rectify a manifest unfairness.

I just saw an excellent example of this in one of my sons' summer JV games. With the bases loaded and the pitcher in the windup position, he quickly made a move toward 1st and failed to make a throw. The PU immediately called it a balk. Quite frankly, from my perspective, I may have also called this a balk. The other team complained, "But he stepped off!" The PU quickly asked the BU if the pitcher had stepped off to which the BU confirmed that the pitcher had. The PU changed his call and sent the runners back. No big deal and everybody was happy.

2. If it was a blown call that the umpire cannot change - he should say so. He should not volunteer that he had blown it, however. But if a blatantly blown call is challenged, the umpire should probably confess.

Again, watching my sons play, I saw a batter from the opposing team get so completely fooled by a changeup that he actually hit the ball with the plastic cap at the end of his bat - hitting it almost like a pool stick. It sounded very odd. The PU overreacted and quickly threw his hands up and called it foul. But, actually, the ball was FAIR as it skipped down the 1st base line and was easily picked up by the pitcher. It would have been a certain out. The defensive coach and inquired as to WHY the ball was ruled foul. The umpire simply said, "I blew it coach. I called it too soon. But I can't change it. Sorry." The coach was real happy, but he accepted it and life went on and all was forgotten.

3. If the umpire is uncertain of his call and only SUSPECTS that he may have blown it, he might as well adopt a view of the play that supports his call. I wouldn't consider this lying. The umpire may even confess that it was a close call but that he called it the way he did because that was his view of the play.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Funny, this happened in one of my regional games this year. PU called it a balk, and after some prodding, came and asked me if the pitcher had disengaged. I told him he had, and the PU unrung the bell.

Unlike your game, though, I ended up ejecting the first base coach over it. C'est la vie.

God, how I love to eject assistant coaches. Too bad there's all that damn paperwork to fill out.:)

Thanks Tim - and remember the humor part if I should someday recommend that a catcher not catch a pitch . . .. .

Have fun in the parking lot, you and your catcher....