To Call Safe or Out?

[GerryB]

Mike & Dave, both excellent points. Level and quality of play are huge factors and my own personal experience has been that as I advanced in ball I had to develop a feel for what the parameters were regarding this kind of call. "Ball there, glove there" is usually expected where I call if the play is routine.

But where's the line? As Dave said that's a development thing. Just this season I had a steal of third by R2. Ball was there but F5 was asleep and late. But from the first base defensive dugout I'm sure it looked out - I called safe. So I got a face full of "the ball was there" from the defensive HC. But you know what? In the seventh inning he came out and apologized; he talked to his F5 who admitted he was late. Of course, my partner after the game said "just call him out anyway, the ball was there..."

TV of course is changing all this and that is a whole different discussion we could have.