Dead ball... Ball!

[tribefan1952]

Originally Posted by Al

I try not to think about how a call will affect the game, tribefan. I think one sets oneself up for trouble if he or she considers the situation before making a call. Let me tell you what situation I was faced with a couple of weeks ago. 11/U F/P softball. It was the last inning and the score was 4 to 3. The home team was up with bases loaded and two outs. This game will determine who plays in the championship game the following week. The girl batting was my next-door neighbor for about 8 years. I watched her grow up. Her dad and I were her coaches in T-ball and coach-pitch. Now here she stands at the plate with perhaps the most important at bat of her life. The count went full. I hear her dad (who is also her coach) say "Protect the plate Emily". Here comes the pitch. A walk ties the game, a hit could win it, and a strike ends it. Emily did not swing at the pitch. It was close to being high and close to being outside but I judged it to be a strike. It was close enough that I could have sold the call either way. Emily turned to look at me and as I looked her in the eye I called out... Strike three!

Game over. And her Dad went right over to the other coach and said "Wow, what a game!

I don't ever let the situation determine my call. If I did that and the other team ends up winning I wouldn't like myself very much. Yeah, I could have called a ball and Emily's team may have won the game after that but would that have been the appropriate thing to have done as one who is to be impartial?

Wow! Great story. Tough situation. Thanks for sharing that. Like you, I could have very easily said that, in my judgement, he had made an effort. It would have been an easy sell. There would not have been any lasting controversy. Most people just figure that you are nearly always entitled to the base.

But I guess calling games to minimize controversy isn't really what we are paid to do.

I wasted no time leaving the field. While I was taking my pads off in the parking lot, a guy walking past sort of grinned at me. I mumbled something about it being an unpopular call. He said, "Well, it sure was a gutsy call!" I guess I nodded and quickly got out of there.