Hole in outfield fence at the base of the fence.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Well, ladies and "germs" "IT" happened again last night. MTD, Jr. and I were umpiring a boys' 14U travel league (with MTD, Jr. behind the plate naturally, you don't think I am going to work the plate with a young stud like Jr. I can stick behind the plate do you? )

Top of the 4th inning and the V's are up 7 to 1 with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 3rd. V's batter hits a blast (into the wind to boot) that clears the fence by at least 10 ft in the left field power alley. H's F7 and F8 run to the fence and watch and can do nothing but watch the ball go over the fence. F7 turns to the infield and signals HR at the same time that MTD, Jr. is signalling a HR.

Now for the good part. F8 then turns toward the infield and calls out that the ball went through a hole in the fence. I call "time" and hustle (if you believed that I hustled, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you) out to the fence. Sure enough there is a hole in the fence along the ground, and the ball is lying on the ground outside the fence about 20 ft past the fence line. I look at F8 and asked him if he really thought a baseball that was hit that high coul roll through hole that far past the fence line. He looked at me and said the ball had some serious spin. I told him that HR stands and turned to the infield and signaled HR.

After the inning was over H's HC told MTD, Jr. that his F7 told him that the ball was way over the fence and thought that F8 was nuts trying to say the ball rolled through the fence.

MTD, Sr.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Top of the 4th inning and the V's are up 7 to 1 with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 3rd. V's batter hits a blast (into the wind to boot) that clears the fence by at least 10 ft in the left field power alley. H's F7 and F8 run to the fence and watch and can do nothing but watch the ball go over the fence. F7 turns to the infield and signals HR at the same time that MTD, Jr. is signalling a HR.

I'm confused. Why wasn't the HR your call?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

I'm confused. Why wasn't the HR your call?

Because, the sky was overcast and I lost the ball against the background of the clouds and looked to Mark for help. This ball was a towering blast for a player in this age group. I saw the ball go off the bat then lost it against the background of the clouds. I am getting old and am blind in one eye and can't see out of the other.

MTD, Sr.

[johnnyg08]

We had a situation last night that was a 3rd strike foul tip off of the catcher's glove, then the ball hit the ground, now foul ball. I was BU, PU was blocked. Here's a situation of a player seeing/thinking something that wasn't...after the ball tipped off of his glove I watched for it to hit the ground, at the time I saw it hit the ground, I called "foul ball." FED catcher was adament that he caught the ball and he probably believes that he still did. He did not. My point...we have to continue to go with what we see and stick to it because as somebody else posted in a different thread..we're the only neutral people at the game...people see what they want to see. From time to time, we'll have to eat one because somebody really did see it differently and maybe we were wrong...but we have to call what we see. Mark's homerun call is very similar. Cognitive Dissonance?