Running Lane - Whose Call?

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by tcarilli

There are those that believe that if something strange happens on a play, for example, a thrown ball hits the BR in the back when he is within the runner's lane, that the ruling umpire should signal safe and say "that's nothing." I have heard this called preventive officiating. It avoids the didn't-you-see-that circus. Of course there are variety of plays in which this mechanic may be employed, a ground ball goes past a runner in between bases, a potential batter's interference, etc. So, yes the possibility of a double call is possible because neither umpire is focused on the other in this play.

Yes, we've all seen / done this. Honestly, this is an extremely thin straw to be building the rest of your argument on. I can say truthfully that I don't recall a single case, in my 18+ years of officiating, where it was necessarily to give the "that's nothing" on runners lane interference. I doubt you have either - the play is just not as conducive to the need to tell everyone, "I saw that, and I'm ruling that as nothing", as other plays might be.