fair/foul - then catch/no-catch

[jicecone]

David, I really think your giving way too much credit to the officials signal being the guide to the runner for whether or not a catch is made. I doubt very much if 10% of the time the runners are judging whether to tag up or not on a signal by the official. I will reserve that 10% for traps.

For the most part, at second, you are watching the fielder and at third/first your listening to the coach.

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by jicecone

David, I really think your giving way too much credit to the officials signal being the guide to the runner for whether or not a catch is made. I doubt very much if 10% of the time the runners are judging whether to tag up or not on a signal by the official. I will reserve that 10% for traps.

For the most part, at second, you are watching the fielder and at third/first your listening to the coach.

At high levels of play and on well-coached teams, runners are always taught to read the ball and not rely on the coach for baserunning decisions. On a fly ball, waiting for the coach to say "Go!" is Little League stuff.

About the only time runners rely on the coach is when their back is to the ball and something unexpected happens. (i.e. runner advancing to 3rd and the outfielder bobbles the ball or the relay is mishandled.) For instance, you'll almost never see a 1st base coach tell a batter to advance to 2nd on a hit because the batter is expected to see the play and make his own decision.

I disagree. I think the umpire's signal on a shoestring catch that could've gone either way is critical to the runner. Primarily, the runner will watch the play and then, if there's any doubt (and there will be doubt on a shoestring catch), his attention will turn immediately to the umpire for a catch/no-catch ruling. The last thing the runner will care about in that situation is whether the ball was fair or foul. Which, to me, is why it seems so odd that it is taught to give the fair/foul call before the catch/no-catch call.

I admit, I'm thinking about this more as a former (Div I) player of the game than I am as an umpire. It's really not that big of a deal. I'm not losing any sleep over it.