Announcers wanted U to signal TD

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by HossHumard

Finally, with regard to the post about “closer doesn’t mean better”…whaaaa? Isn’t positioning what it’s all about? How many times have you worked the bench side as a coach screams in your ear about a play in the middle of the field and you’ve turned to him and said, “Coach, we’re 30 yards away, the guys in the pit have a much better view of what’s going on!”.

I have no beef with your mechanic, as it is what you're trained to do, and you obviously have different responsibilities than your American brethren do on a play like this. Your partners know that, and are doing their jobs as well.

But it will not work here. Reason one is that the rest of U's team is expecting him to be doing his job, and not theirs. I've actually seen an umpire go up with TD hands and HL rushing in blowing his whistle pointing at the ground to say "NO TD". It looked HORRIBLE, and the fault lies with the umpire who was doing someone else's job. Reason two is that U doesn't line up where you describe, and U would have a horrible angle on most plays, and would be too close. U would have to line up much further outside than he normally does in America, which would switch other people's responsibilities.

As to your derogatory comment re: Closer is not better. Closer is not better in THIS case. Do baseball umpires call plays at the bases from 2-3 yards away, with a poor angle? No - a bit of distance (no, not your absurd example of 30 yards away) and angle is a better view. Umpire is too close on most plays to make this call. He might be able to make a decent guess from about 5-6 yards from the play, but again, his angle would be bad in most cases.

PS - I would ask, by the way ... if the mechanic of having U make the call on TD vs no TD is inherently better, why would you only make this call at the goal line ... wouldn't it be better all over the field? If H and L have better views as to where a play ends all over the rest of the field, why do they suddenly not have the ability to do so at the goal line? No, I've not tried it ... but it makes no sense to me.