The idiocy never ends on that Yahoo! thread:

This is from "Robert."

If anyone had bothered to look in the baseball rule book they'd clearly see that the ball was foul as soon as it made contact with the ground--in foul territory--prior to the 3rd base bag (I'm a former minor league and college umpire who's heard his earful over the years). Where the ball goes after that is immaterial. Watch Davidson's arms go up signaling foul just as soon as the ball touches the ground the first time. GOOD CALL!

This is a great example of how the Internet and ESPN are just awful for sports...

You make replays available for anyone to see unlimited times, allow any yahoo without a clue to say whatever they want anonymously, and it reinforces the stereotype that everyone who is not overtly for you and agrees with you is a stupid %^$#*%^*U%*%# who cheats you at the drop of a hat. Then it becomes a great big echo chamber.

Ugh. It's getting worse than politics on the Internet.

Thats what so great about this country. Stupid people are still allowed to talk and write in public. There ought to be a law banning this type of behavior.

What is great about this is, everyone else watched the video to see what the ball did, this "former minor league and college umpire" looked in the rulebook to watch it.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Ugh. It's getting worse than politics on the Internet.

It is kind of crazy that some news that actually affects the country or the world or people's lives will generate a dozen posts, and a robbery in which a clerk is shot will generate 100 suggestions as to how the robber should be tortured to death, and a fair/foul call will generate (as of this moment) 2,997 posts, many of them vitriolic, and the vast majority utterly uninformed and incorrect, though stated authoritatively.

I like the post that says, "Read the rules. The base doesn't determine fair or foul. If it did, then all those long drives that are fair until the last moment and then go foul would be called home runs!!"

Revise and Extend My Remarks
 

It may be awful, but it can be entertaining at times. You are right, it is a great country....

Hilarious, and amazing how people who post this kind of stuff always "used to be a college or minor league umpire" etc.,

Watched a HS State Tourney last week and I think i saw this guy umpiring ... no need for details I'm sure its been echoed all over the country in the last few weeks.

Thanks
David

For the ball to curve around the bag it would need to have tremendous clockwise spin (looking down at the diamond). Foul balls hit in this manner are spinning counter-clockwise (hooking). You would need some highly unusual hand action or have it be cued off the end of the bat to get clockwise spin on a ball pulled down the line such as this by a right-hand hitter. This is further reinforced by the fact that the ball bounced from fair territory into foul and rolled further foul as it made its way toward the left field corner.

I think Davidson called it as he anticipated it would go and didn't have time to stop his call in midstream when it took the funny bounce.

My only point is that baseballs do not travel in completely straight lines, even if they never hit the ground. I am saying if we think about it we have all seen baseballs take funny bounces and this is no exception. And there is no evidence that says it did or did not cross the bag other than where the ball bounced. But that is not what you decide to make the call. Did the ball cross the front part of the bag, that is all that matters.

Peace

Come on now, JR. It bounced fair just before the bag, and just after it. Honestly, what else could it be?

But Davidson had to use only the first bounce as evidence, THEN judge f/f as passed over the bag, as he was backing away from the projectile. Not easy. He didn't have the luxury of seeing the second bounce, which proved his miscue.

It would have been refreshing to see him own it after the game, but that's not how most of them roll.

Here's another teaching point for all you rookies out there: When in doubt, call it FAIR. It's far easier to unring that bell, with help from the PU after the fact. It's really hard to undo a foul call.

What kind of argument is this? How about this logic: The fielder had the ball in his possession before and after the tag -- who cares if he had it during?

He had to use a bounce as evidence? Um, no. How about: he observed the ball as it went past 3B and made his judgement at that point.

What part of a fair/foul decision on a bounding ball are you not understanding? The ONLY thing Davidson had to judge is the ball's position as it passed the bag. Nothing, -- I'll repeat: NOTHING -- else matters.

Own what? He made the call and stood by it. There is NOTHING to disprove his call. If this were the Little League World Series, the call could NOT be overturned -- there is NOTHING to prove the umpire's judgement was wrong. At this point, the ONLY thing that matters is the umpire's judgement.

Here's a better tip: If you know it's foul, call it FOUL. I don't think Davidson had any doubt with his call. If he had, he probably would have had a Kumbaya with the other umpires.

Without re-re-re-opening the can of worms about how a baseball can or cannot move in the air, I've seen monsters swinging hot bats crush softballs that "do the impossible." How about a ball lined over the pitcher's head that ends up leaving the park in right-center? Or a line smash over F5's head that then suddenly drops practically straight down and hits the infield dirt?

I agree that Davidson should not have relied on—or even looked at—the bounce after the bag. He seemed quite confident of his call afterward, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. At worst, it was a missed close call, and unless MLB had cameras everywhere, a replay would likely not have reversed it.

Here's another teaching point: Ignore this one and stop thinking that you can push your calls onto someone else. Do the best you can, make the best call you can, and then when the coach comes out and goes call shopping, tell him it's your call to make, you made it, and that's the end of it.

Bullcrap, call what you think you see and live up to it like Davidson did. I am all for getting it right but, this is one where you have step up to the plate and do your job PERIOD

Exactly. And if you're lucky enough to have an umpire at third in your games, why should the plate guy (who's over 90 feet away and coming out of a plate stance) be thrown under the bus by a U3 who's afraid to make a call exactly as he sees it.

If my U3 called it fair and then came down to me at the plate, the first question I'd ask him is why he's even on the field. May as well work 2-man if I have to make that call.

You guys are missing my point. Davidson, on the field, made a tough call. All he had to rely on was a bounce before the bag, and the ball coming at him. I've got no problem with him defending his call on the field.

Video showed it bouncing fair before and after the bag. He saw that, and still defend his call after the game. That's where he should have owned it.

As for calling balls fair, if you have a doubt, or get screened on it, that's what you do. That's second semester stuff.