Can this be fixed?

[gordon30307]

First of all not my game. This situation was told to me. High School Varsity. Batter hit by pitch and is sent down to first. Defensive team protests need to get out of the way of the pitch etc. etc. HP umpire confers with his partner and his partener agrees he leaned into it. HP umpire brings him back to the plate. Batter get in the box and asks the HP umpire what's the count? He's told 3 and 0. Next pitch a strike and the defensive team comes out on the field to celebrate the victory. HP umpire finds out the count was 2 and 2 and not 3 and 0. Game over.

Can this be fixed or is the game over? Definitely an injustice here.

[Welpe]

There is nothing to fix other than ensure the PU keeps the count next time.

[mbyron]

What's the injustice? The kid struck out in a high school baseball game. :shrug:

The mistake was conferring with partner. That's PU's call all the way.

[RadioBlue]

I had something similar happen once.

After a foul ball, the DHC asked me for the count. I told him it was 0-2.

Somehow, I lost the count and my indicator showed 0-2. Actually, the count was 3-1. (Don't know how it happened. 3rd game of the day. Brain was a little fried, I guess.)

The next pitch was an eye-high waste pitch and the batter starts trotting to 1B. Immediately I'm thinking, "Whoa ooh!"

DHC comes out and give me a chewing. I gave him plenty of leeway. When it was time to be done, I let him know it was time to get the game back underway. He wasn't willing at this point to let it go and I'm thinking I might have to dump him.

Instead, I said to him in a very nice tone, "Coach, I'm sorry. I realy am. But if I understand things here, you're upset with me for losing the count ... which is the exact same thing that you did."

It ended the discussion and he got to stay for the rest of the game.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by gordon30307

First of all not my game. This situation was told to me. High School Varsity. Batter hit by pitch and is sent down to first. Defensive team protests need to get out of the way of the pitch etc. etc. HP umpire confers with his partner and his partner agrees he leaned into it. HP umpire brings him back to the plate. Batter get in the box and asks the HP umpire what's the count? He's told 3 and 0. Next pitch a strike and the defensive team comes out on the field to celebrate the victory. HP umpire finds out the count was 2 and 2 and not 3 and 0. Game over.

Can this be fixed or is the game over? Definitely an injustice here.

The PU should not have solicited help from his partner. Not his call. However, since he did, and overturned the call, the PU has to know what the new count is. He shouldn't be guessing at this point. The batter must bear some responsibility too, as he had to know that he had two strikes on him when he leaned into the pitch. When he heard the umpire give him an obviously wrong count, he should have questioned it and not take advantage of the situation. Somebody was bound to have the right count, so what was to be gained by trying to cheat?

Therefore, I don't see any injustice, but in fact just the opposite. Justice was served, as the batter tried to cheat not only once by leaning into a pitch, but then again by pretending he had a 3-0 count. His coach should rip him a new one for not knowing the count (or pretending not to) and taking one down the chute for strike three.

[gordon30307]

I agree PU SHOULD NOT have consulted his partner. Live with your call and play on. From the players perspective. Your hit by a pitch and standing on first. Meanwhile this discussion goes on perhaps for 5 minutes. Now your back at the plate. I can see him forgetting the count. I also agree that EVERYONE has a responsibility to know the situation. The greater responiblity falls on the officials. In this situation wrong information has been given out by the official that has put the batter at a disadvantge. Just seems unfair to me that the game is over. As an aside I love hearing about cluster ****s as long as it doesn't involve me. I file it in the don't ever do this drawer.

[MD Longhorn]

I don't know about you, but after sending a runner to first, conferring with partner (which I shouldn't have done), retrieving the runner, and likely dealing with an irate coach, you can be dang sure I'm checking my clicker with the scorekeeper and/or partner before we reset.