American Legion "Time Called"
 

First off, I am calling my fault on this one. I know I called time too early. However let's suppose I didn't mess up.
Sit: Bases Loaded no outs. Infield pulled in bottom of the seventh tie game. A shot to the shortstop that skips into his glove. My awesome partner has a great angle and yells no catch and gives a safe signal on the catch. The shortstop throws home. R3 slides home in a cloud of dust, I yell force and mark the out. The catcher looks to throw to first, realizes that the play would be to risky and holds on to the ball. Catcher pauses throws the ball to the pitcher who then walks back to the mound area. He is on th dirt (not that it matters). I call time and go to sweep the plate. Well there is no runner on second the second baseman notices and yells at the pitcher to throw it there. He does and my partner yells force and marks the second out (apparently R1 fell and twisted his ankle and limped off the field toward the first base dugout as the play initially took place). When the pitcher throws to second for the second out, R2 who is now on third breaks for the plate. I am done sweeping the plate at this time and the batter is in the batters box. The batter moves into the diamond as the catcher contact him to get into position for the throw home and just avoids the throw because it is up the line a little. The catcher catches it and reaches back to tag the runner but doesn't make it. Needless to say, The defensive coach wants interference on the batter and a third out. The offensive coach wants the run to count.

1) Here is what we did. Called the runner out at second and then sent the winning run back to third, due to time being called. Really no one said much both coaches were great about it. Was this the right thing to do?

2) What if I hadn't called time. I believe that I do have to call the runner out at the plate for interference. Right?:eek::(:eek::confused:

1) I don't even know where to begin with this. From a logical standpoint, that might be a fix.

2) No, because I'd bet my left nut that the only reason the next batter was there to "interfere" was because he was paying attention to what you were doing, which was preparing for the next pitch. You don't call time, he's on 3BLX telling the runner what to do.

Watch the game, don't get so locked into your routine that you're worrying more about cleaning the plate than noticing that a runner has not reached 2B.

Watch the game, just because you're on the plate doesn't mean you give up all responsibilities on the bases.

first2third,

Where are you from?

JM

I have to say Duh to jonny's reply, I think I learned that.
I am from Utah.:o

First of all, you called TIME so nothing after that happened. And what is all the yelling of "force"?

Don't ask for feedback if you're going to Duh people.

Well, he wasn't asking for advice on how to keep this from happening again -- I think he learned that the hard way already. He's looking for comments on how he handled the situation.

Time out is time out. Nothing after you said that actually happened.

And I agree with the above - sounds like you guys yell too much generally. No need to yell force.

Whenever you call time, you eliminate the possibility of getting outs. Don't do it! You can sweep the plate with the ball live. That's what partners are for.

You have your partners sweep the plate? That's genius! Wish I'd thought of it. :D

When I coached third with R3 and the umpire swept the plate with the ball live I instructed my runners to take a couple of steps, look at the pitcher and catcher to see if they were more alert than the umpire and head for the plate. Of course most umps would say they called time when it never happened but, there were the one's that didn't know better.

Take the time and read what is happening on the field. If your going to bend over with runners on, call time. You can sweep the plate with a live ball, just know when too.

One of my fantasies is plate chicks - baseball's answer to boxing ring card girls. They would come out in skimpy outfits and sweep the plate with a whisk broom (requiring bending at the waist) when it needed it. "Time! Can I get a plate chick out here please?" They would also supply the umpires with cold water.

R3 is out via force. R1 is called out for abandonment (7.08a(2)). Nothing else happened.

+1

You know dang well that if we had that in baseball, either the batter or catcher or most likely me would be kicking dirt on the plate very very frequently. Then we would also have to have an assistant or a "Plate Chick Checker" say that 3 times.