Asking partner for help...

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by canadaump6

I had this situation take place...

3-2 count on the batter, pitch misses low, batter brings his wrists down towards the plate but his bat was at about a 45 degree angle to the batter and not close to crossing the plate, so I balled the pitch. Catcher asks for an appeal so I yell "did he go?" to my partner who has his mind on where he is supposed to go (we were using 3 man system), and doesn't notice me appealing. I yell "(partner's name) did he go"? This time he hears me and calls it a swing.

So the partner was moving to his new position because of ball four, but he saw that it was a swing, even though he wasn't paying attention? Then, he doesn't anticipate that the defense would appeal, even though he thought the batter swung? Sounds kind of fishy to me.

If there is even the most remote chance that the batter may have offered, a good base umpire will begin to head to his position so as not to draw attention to an appeal, but he should be ready to quickly make his judgment immediately if asked for his opinion. The fact that you had to get his attention tells me he really didn't know either way, and shouldn't have rung the batter up if he didn't see it.