What is your philosophy

[Jake80]

Two different situations - Two different days.

1) R1 steals on the pitch. Ball beats runner easily. SS fields the ball two feet behind second base. Reaches forward and tags the sliding runner high on right thigh. Left foot already on the bag. I call safe. Coach disputes call as ball beat runner in plenty of time and should be called out. I say yes if fielder is in proper position but not if fielder has to reach to make tag.

2) Batter hits liner in the gap and trys for a double. Relay from outfield is good. Fielder has left foot on back (outfield side) of bag. Ball beats runner and fielder makes a swipe tag as runner is going head first into second. Area around second has about 3 inches of loose dirt so on the slide the runners arms are buried in the dirt. Runner says something "aw darn" or ##$#%$ wasn't listening that close. It may just have been because slide hurt but I interpret it as "damn, I shouldn't have tried for second". Now fielder may or may not have tagged the runner I couldn't tell. But defense did not make any misplay on the ball and it "looked like an out". I call out. Coach disputes saying a tag couldn't have been made.

What is your philosophy on these types of plays? If it "looks like an out" is it? Or do you call safe if you don't see a tag made?

[DownTownTonyBrown]

Yes, sometimes the players will help you out... and you can impose the penalty they think they deserve, and do so without getting into much trouble. In general though, you have got to make the call that you see.

If the play is close or contested, then the call must be sold. In #1, loudly, "SAFE. No tag." To the coach, "It is not a timing play, Coach. You are right; the ball was there in plenty of time but, there was no tag made until after the runner touched the base. Runner is safe." Of course he is going to immediately try to show you up by asking the fielder if the tag was good. Hopefully the fielder has enough brains to say that he might have missed... or something.

Had a situation the other day where the pitcher and first baseman had the player at first dead three times in a row. F3 made minimal attempt to tag - a little flick of his wrist from about waist height down about 6 inches toward the sliding, returning runner. I was ready to call the out but had to say loudly "NO TAG." Not once. Not twice, but three time in a row they did this. Not one of those three times was a tag made but the timing was great and I was ready to sell the out three times in a row. BUT NO! My first call was the loud sell of safe, no tag. The second call for the identical motion was an almost questioning call with my palms upwards and arms only partially extended, "No tag?" The third one was just a safe call.

Play #2. Whatever you see is what should be called and dirt on his arm doesn't negate the tag. In this case the player helped you out; give him what he thinks happened. Call the out and do it as a matter of fact. In this case, selling the call may create more commotion than just a calm out call. If the player thinks he is out, let him be out. Coach is an idiot - "I'm not sure Coach, are you're questioning my judgement or you're questioning the natural laws of physics? Couldn't have been made; what does that mean, Coach?" Well that's a little of my sarcastic nature and not a wise response... better would be "It was a great hit Coach but I saw tag before he reached the base."

Sometimes it has got to be sold. To call different than what is expected by the players and the crowd requires the sell.

I've seen players slide into 2nd and be tagged so violently, dragging the tag from their ankles up into their face, to the point I thought they may come up fighting... and the runner gets up and says "He didn't touch me." No sell needed. Just give them the signal and leave. Never stand a fight with a player.

Just my opinions. Hopefully it helps.

[gsf23]

Well, in the first situation I don't see where there should be a philosophy involved, according to the post you could clearly see that the runner was safe, no reason to call on out on that play.

The second situation is the one that sucks. As an ump I personally feel that swipe tags are one of the harder calls to make because the are generally going to be a bang bang plays, probably with the runner sliding and dirt flying. In these situations, unless I see something that says otherwise, like your frist situation, I'm calling the out.

Now in your situation, you said that the fielder was on the outfield side of the bag. Now if I was the ump, after seeing the ball caught and the tag trying to be applied, the next thing I would look at is where is this runner sliding? If they are going to the middle or outfield side of the bag, I would probably ring em up, but if they made a good slide to the inside part of the bag, then I might have a safe call. Was the throw into second high or right on the bag? Again, a throw right on the bag would probably get the out call while a high throw may cause me to go with a safe call.

Now again, this is all based on the fact that because of the dirt, you can't clearly see a tag being applied. If you can see the play, like situation one, then you call what you see. Otherwise, don't rush your call, analyze what you did see and then go with your gut.

I don't rely to heavily on player reaction. The defense is always going to think they got an out and the offense is always going to think they are safe. Sometimes though, if the player does react like your situation 2, you can get away with calling like they want it.

Just my opinion, let the criticizing begin!

[Edited by gsf23 on May 13th, 2003 at 02:36 PM]