Had a sitch last night that I want to be sure about. This was a LL Majors game.....

Batter swings and foul tips the ball directly in to the catchers glove who makes a clean catch. I did not see the catcher catch the ball and thought it got by him (my bad) so I call FOUL BALL!!

There was a runner on first who got about half way to second and stopped when he heard me call the foul ball and did not hurry back to first. Catcher throws to first and F3 tags him.

The question is:
Was this still a legal play or does my calling foul ball make the ball dead? After discussion with both coaches we decided not to award the out but I still feel pretty bad because I feel that it was my fault for yelling foul ball and making the runner stop.

Thanks

It affected play; it wasn't immediately reversed; it remains a foul ball -- and a good lesson learned.

<i> Originally posted by cmckenna </i>

<b> Had a sitch last night that I want to be sure about. This was a LL Majors game.....

Batter swings and foul tips the ball directly in to the catchers glove who makes a clean catch. I did not see the catcher catch the ball and thought it got by him (my bad) so I call FOUL BALL!!

There was a runner on first who got about half way to second and stopped when he heard me call the foul ball and did not hurry back to first. Catcher throws to first and F3 tags him.

The question is:
Was this still a legal play or does my calling foul ball make the ball dead? After discussion with both coaches we decided not to award the out but I still feel pretty bad because I feel that it was my fault for yelling foul ball and making the runner stop. </b>

For the most part when an umpires calls FOUL! that's it and you have to live with the call because players are trained to react to the umpires call of FOUL. (that's the main reason we do not yell Fair ball but simply point.)

You hear it all the time, LJ keep running until you hear the umpire call FOUL. There are very rare instances in which players do not react to the umpires call of Foul.

Now if the ball was a HR and you called FOUL but after conferring with your partner,(who had a better angle), you can then change it to fair because you do not have to worry about: where do I place the batter, the runners.

Same would be true if ball was called foul and then bounced into stands. After conferring with your partner, you could change to fair because you simply put B1 on second and all other runners effected would advance 2 bases.

Summary: If the action is continuous and you call FOUL - you have to live with it because players will simply stop. We all have done it and the answer is to learn from it.

Pete Booth