Coverage Question

[Rich]

Originally Posted by jophyal

rich, what rotation do you have with a runner on first as PU. we are trained to have play at third, if there is one. lets say that F4 chooses to make play at first and R1 rounds second and play is made on him at third. where are you?

I'm trailing up towards the left side of the mound and when I recognize F4 is throwing to first, I move in that direction in case a wild throw goes out of play or near a fence/line.

And if the ball gets thrown back to third, I'm ready to take a wild throw towards the fence/line and also am in a good position to make a call at the plate.

As you can tell, I've never really bought into making the PU cover third in this situation (where the ball doesn't leave the infield). I can easily get proper angles on both plays (at first and back at third) as the base umpire.

Last week I was working with a strange partner who showed up late for a DH and so I was prepared for anything. We had a routine ground ball hit with R1, play made to first, ball gets away, no fence, ball rolling towards DBT. My usual partners would have been on that ball, but instead this guy was standing at third base (even though the runner didn't try to advance until the throw got away).

(I'm OK with a partner wanting to cover third, but I think the discussion changes when there's no fence and we have to deal with DBT lines on the field.)