OBR - You Make the Call

[Jerry]

I think we're all right . . . and we're all wrong. Missing the plate, trying to return after entering the dugout, the catcher should/shouldn't step on the plate, the runner starts to go back to home and then retreats toward the dugout again, runners all going berserk and missing bases all over the place, etc., etc., etc. For God's sake, call something! If all playing action has stopped (e.g. runners hold between bases, that runner from the dugout stops in his tracks and the catcher being confused on what the hell he should do . . . call "time", call that runner who missed the plate out for "leaving the basepath" or "abandoning his effort to return" or for "being overage"; it doesn't matter! Get on with the game! Calmly . . . once you've got all the irate coaches, parents and players running at you with baseball bats back to where they belong . . . allow all the protests you want. Go on with the game and let the "experts" on the protest committee handle it!