Sea @ Tex-Foul or not?
 

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | SEA@TEX: Wilson believes he fouled off strike three - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

No way to tell. I was surprised the catcher waited so long to tag him.

I have never seen a Major League game end like this.

The PU called him out when he left the dirt, right?

I noticed that as well. Good call on the dirt circle. Tough to tell (or hear with all the fans cheering) on the foul ball .

Was that always the ruling or did that come about after the White Sox/Angels Deal-e-o in a few years ago?

Of course, Joe West did not ask for help on THIS one
 

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WSH@MIL: Riggleman's tossed in the top of the third - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

Nice Ejection mechanics, though!

How could there not have been a sound of bat hitting ball?

West doesn't mail it in quite as glaringly as McLelland, but Joe's best days as an umpire were spent in another whole millennium.

Even if he did foul it off...his actions showed me that he swung and missed. He barked at the umpire when he realized he ended the game and should've ran it out. PU waited until the exact moment he left the circle as the rule states.

After Josh Paul screwed up. Before that, the rule was the batter could run to first anytime before entering dead ball territory.

If he fouled it, how could his actions show you he did something else?

If he DID foul it , wouldn't he have acted exactly how he did? I think the catcher must have heard a foul because he did not go tag him until the pitcher told him to.(not sure if that was in this clip or the mlb .tv archive that I looked up)

I think that if he actually swung and missed, he would have been more likely to run. The ball had bounced somewhere, he did not know where...why would he not run? He had a better chance to make first safely somehow than to fool the umpire, didn't he? I would think that fooling the umpire on a play like this is going to happen VERY infrequently...an overthrow to first happens WAY more often than that.

I used to think in my first or second year that player reactions normally indicated what happened (ball of the foot, etc.) until I saw that youtube with the OK player who acted like he was HBP immediately, and replays showed he wasn't. Players have gotten used to trying to buy the call right away.

It seemed like the way Saltalamacchia scrambled for the ball right away that he at least didn't assume a foul ball, so it was probably indistinguishable to anybody but the batter. And as stated above, I don't necessarily believe him, but don't disbelieve him either. No different than a close banger to end the game I suppose.

I am not saying I believe the batter at all...I am just trying to figure it out. Go figure....:D

Hard to tell if he did, but he should of as soon as he abandoned the effort to goto first.

Can you please give a rule number for the change. I read thru the rules published by MLB and do not find a reference to a batter being called out for leaving the dirt area after he has swung at a pitch. I did find language regarding a batter leaving the dirt area if he didn't swing which is to keep him from delaying the game. Thanks

6.09(b) CMT

Never mind I found it, thanks
Rule 6.09(b) Comment: A batter who does not realize his situation on a third strike not caught, and who is not in the process of running to first base, shall be declared out once he leaves the dirt circle surrounding home plate.

You are too fast for me.

DJ rocks.

actually it was a kid from Arkansas... here is that video..very funny.. btw that kid was stupid and then get thrown out for being a dumbazz...

YouTube - Ole Miss - Arkansas baseball...Emmy Nominations

Indeed he did. So did Munch in game one.

Van Horn is a rat through and through. There are several classics on YouTube of him getting dumped. I know you're supposed to stand up for your player, but how could he defend the kid in that situation? The PU should have ran him in addition to the player.

Rodent food..
 

that Walker kid likely prefers limburger

Where was his mechanic?
 

quick question on the OP video.
Why didn't the PU give a dropped-third-strike mechanic?

Would have saved him some trouble. I know for HS we're instructed to give our strike mechanic followed by the safe mechanic, and I know this is standard to some veteran umpires around these forums as well.

I was at the game. It was obvious to everyone the ball was in the dirt. If he thought it was foul he would have thrown both hands in the air.

What is that old adage... tie goes to the runner? No... hands are part of the bat? No... maybe it was: "Run 'till they call it foul." You might look funny for a little while, but it is easier to explain why you were running, then why you didn't and it ended the game.

~sigh~
 

Because it was not an uncaught mechanic. It was clear that F2 did not catch the ball.

The only call necessary in this sequence would be both hands up if the ball was called foul. When that signal wasn't made it is quite clear that F2 had not caught the third strike.

Thanks for the sigh and the answer Tim. Stay classy! :)

Good luck with that pi$sing contest!;)

Your odds are just as long here as on the other forum. :p

haha, so does every answer bother him? Or just ones he has to give to newbies? It's a forum where we ask questions, and he sounds bothered to have to...answer...questions.

He still talks that way to me. And I'm not all alone, either. He is old, you see, and very set in his ways!:p




Yes Tim, that one is for a rise!

Tim does not suffer fools well. I don't see that as a sin.

Wondering why the plate umpire couldn't have given a strike mechanic on a swing and miss with the ball in the dirt, the way they do on just about EVERY other swing and miss, doesn't seem like such a foolish question.

I don't know the guy, and am not going to go looking at all of his replies, but telling new umpires that maybe they should stick to lower levels, when that umpire is on an umpire forum asking umpire questions, seems to go beyond simply not indulging trolls or know-it-alls.

That seems like the kind of attitude that keeps forums from attracting more posters, more questions, and more dialogue.


Also, I'm on west coast time (midnight here). That 2am posting time up there makes me seem like too much of a late-night dweeb, even for an umpire :)

Alex
 

I have read your posts on two sites. At best, your youth shows as arrogance in most posts. I find that your location answers most of my questions.

As for the mechanic it was not a decision of catching the ball . . . no trained umpire would use the mechanic that you are endorsing.

I really don't care if you read my posts or not. I will not suffer.