Sick To My Stomach

[MOofficial]

Synopsis:

Last Friday night I had the final of a district (Missouri plays districts (6-8 teams), then they move onto sectionals, quarterfinals, state (4 teams)). We had two games that night. The first game was a game being resumed from Wednesday night in the bottom of 2nd, the winner plays again at 9 that night for the district championship. Championship game starts at 9, I'm on 3rd in the 3-man system. Fog is starting to cover the outfield so bad that you can really only see the silhouette of the outfielders at some point. Game management wanted to keep playing because the next round is Monday and we couldn't continue on Saturday because it will mess up the pitching rotation.

Top of 7th, Home team is up 4-2, 2 outs, no runners on. Fly ball headed towards center field, center fielder runs with his back towards me, straight to the fence, I can see the ball above the fog but when it gets in it I lose it. I go off the center fielders reaction, he stops running and in one fluid motion bends over a little bit, turns around and fires the ball back in to second as fast as he can. Going off his reaction I say no catch, runner at second. I get back to third base and nothing is being said until the coach comes out and says "Corey that's a catch, he should be out." In short I tell the coach I did not see the ball being caught and going by his reaction I don't think he caught it and that's all I had to off of because the outfielder didn't show me the ball if he did catch it. He then states "Did you see the ball hit the ground?" I said "No, did you see him catch the ball?" And I tell him that is exactly why I had to go off his reaction and that reaction told me no catch. The visiting team after that play scored 5 runs with 2 outs to go up 7-4. The next play was a fly ball that they of coursed missed for the third out. At this point I'm starting to get that feeling that I've messed it up and am feeling "sick to my stomach" If this kid caught the ball, it was the greatest catch I've ever seen with the fog, the willy mays style, and also in that type of game. No cheering reaction from him, any teammates, coaches, or fans.
My fiance was at the game sitting on the home team side and said all the fans didn't know if he caught it either and still had no idea.

Bottom of 7th before the inning starts the coach wants to talk some more and we exchange words again and he goes I just hope that play doesn't cost these kids a district championship, my smart mouth gets the best of me at this point and we go back and forth for a few more words and its done. Home team ties it up we go into the 8th. Home team has 4 errors in one inning and they loes by 3.

Fast forward to Monday where I have the winning team again in the sectional round of state. I talk to the coach who was in that district game and told him I still don't know if that kid caught that ball and he says they had their district meeting today for all district team and that kid finally admitted that he didn't catch it. However, Friday he was really adamant that he caught the ball and whined about it the rest of the night and kept telling everyone he did catch it.

So I talk to my assigner on Saturday morning about the play and he said I handled it right and then he was working with me on Monday and I told him that the kid confessed. He said there should be something I should be able to say to the coach in an email or a phone call about the play and how I felt sick to my stomach for the weekend and then it all comes down to a kid lying about the catch. So my question is, should I email or call the coach and talk about that play, or just leave it be?

[MD Longhorn]

My first response was going to be... "I can't remember what happened last week, I've slept since then..."

But in seriousness, ask yourself this: Will it help anybody if you write that email?

[Durham]

Leave it be. You did the best you could at the time of the call. When I do that I sleep just fine, and you should too.

[GA Umpire]

Leave it alone. He won't stop from trying it again if the chance arises. The coach won't care especially if the kid pulled it off and tricked you. Then, he and/or the plater would be happy about his lie.

Forget it and move on. Once the game is over, all calls made that game are over except if a learning experience was made. The email will be a waste of your time and the coach's reading it. The kid may not ever hear about it or care. He'll try it next week. He isn't the first to try it and won't be the last.

[BK47]

MO, you got to let that one go. You should have let it go once you left the field. I have learned over my few short years it aint worth the headache to keep plays like that in. The coach had his say and you had your response. The kid lied, thats nothing new. Players lie all the time, hell they do it in the MLB too.

You got out there, made your call and judging by what you saw the player did not catch the ball, otherwise he would have come up and shown it to you.

As for contacting the coach, I would leave it. HE should actually contact you and appoligize, but we all know that aint happening. Just keep it in mind for next year when you see that team.

[bob jenkins]

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

[Altor]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

And just for safe measure...At no point in this process should you actually put the coach's address in the To: line.

[jdmara]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

You should:

1) Write an email to the coach.
2) Save it as a draft over night.
3) Read it again the next morning.
4) Edit it.
5) Delete it.

1+

-Josh

[DG]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

you should:

1) write an email to the coach.
2) save it as a draft over night.
3) read it again the next morning.
4) edit it.
5) delete it.

10-4

[PeteBooth]

[QUOTE=MOofficial;678463]Synopsis:

Fog is starting to cover the outfield so bad that you can really only see the silhouette of the outfielders at some point. Game management wanted to keep playing because the next round is Monday and we couldn't continue on Saturday because it will mess up the pitching rotation.

Here-in lies the problem.

If there was NO game management around and this were simply a regular season game would you and your partners have stopped the game once the FOG covered the outfield?

So what if you play Saturday and it messes up the pitching rotation. That's called LIFE. If you work for a living and have deadlines to meet and something un-expected happens guess what! you work throught the night or come in on Saturday / Sunday to meet the deadline.

You could NOT see the catch / no catch because of the FOG so IMO that tells you all you need to know meaning the conditions were not safe. You said many errors followed most likely because the players couldn't see the ball properly.

Also, did they play the game that was supposed to start at 9PM?

Forget about an E-mail it's baseball NOT life / death.

Pete Booth

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by MOofficial

Synopsis:

So my question is, should I email or call the coach and talk about that play, or just leave it be?

You'd be assuming that what you had to say would be of importance or interest to the coach and you'd be wrong.

Let it go.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by MOofficial

Top of 7th, Home team is up 4-2, 2 outs, no runners on. Fly ball headed towards center field, center fielder runs with his back towards me, straight to the fence, I can see the ball above the fog but when it gets in it I lose it. I go off the center fielders reaction, he stops running and in one fluid motion bends over a little bit, turns around and fires the ball back in to second as fast as he can. Going off his reaction I say no catch, runner at second. I get back to third base and nothing is being said until the coach comes out and says "Corey that's a catch, he should be out."

"So, Coach tell me this: Why did your fielder fire the ball in to second base with such urgency if he caught the ball for the 3rd out? Don't fielders who just made a catch for the 3rd out just trot in with the baseball? Not a catch, Coach."

[Matt]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

"So, Coach tell me this: Why did your fielder fire the ball in to second base with such urgency if he caught the ball for the 3rd out? Don't fielders who just made a catch for the 3rd out just trot in with the baseball? Not a catch, Coach."

Every time I use logic in a "discussion" with a rat, it never turns out well. I have more productive debates with my two-year-old.

[JJ]

Bob Jenkins, your post is the funniest post I have ever seen on this forum. Retire now the undisputed champion.

JJ

[ozzy6900]

Originally Posted by MOofficial

Synopsis:

Last Friday night I had the final of a district (Missouri plays districts (6-8 teams), then they move onto sectionals, quarterfinals, state (4 teams)). We had two games that night. The first game was a game being resumed from Wednesday night in the bottom of 2nd, the winner plays again at 9 that night for the district championship. Championship game starts at 9, I'm on 3rd in the 3-man system. Fog is starting to cover the outfield so bad that you can really only see the silhouette of the outfielders at some point. Game management wanted to keep playing because the next round is Monday and we couldn't continue on Saturday because it will mess up the pitching rotation. .........

• You can't see the players other than a silhouette? The game stops!
• Are you nuts? You stop the game and see if the fog clears. If it doesn't, the game is done.
• Pitching rotation, who cares?
• What happens if a batted ball clocks a player and his brains are all over the field? You loose your home, your freedom - it's not worth that.

The game should have been stopped / ended! No excuse for stupidity (and I mean on the part of the umpires, not the coaches)