Look back rule - ASA 8-7-T

[Andy]

Originally Posted by teebob21

Andy, this is good advice. I made the dead-ball call because I temporarily let my mind slip back into 2-man mode...but whatever: it was made. Since you and I work together in the AZ area, you know both of my partners for this game and they are good umpires. Unfortunately, based on the postgame comments, my re-reading the book, and the comments in this thread, they were incorrect, and ultimately we made the wrong call as a crew.

I can admit that I've never pregamed LBR coverages. I will do so in the future. Two questions:

(1) Should I have gotten my partners together on the field to make the right call, after I called the dead ball and a bit of confusion broke out?
(2) Should this happen again, and the U3 misses or ignores it, what should the crew do? Let U3 eat it?

The reason I suggested the pre-game is more geared toward two-umpire mechanics. Often, in the situation described, both umpires will be watching the batter-runner and nobody is watching the other runner(s). I've always split it so that the BU has the B/R and the PU has any other runners. Any umpire can kill the play and call a violation on the LBR. I will admit right now that I am not sure of the proper coverage in a three umpire game, but I would hope that all three umpires would not be focused on one runner.

This is one of those calls that we don't make very often and with multiple runners, it may be a good idea to get your crew together to talk through the call and the penalty since some of the crew may have been focused elsewhere or moving to cover a potential play. This would be similar to what we are asked to do in the college game when we have a DDB call like an illegal pitch or a runner leaving the base prior to the pitch.

As I mentioned above, any umpire can kill the play and make the LBR call. If you are 100% certain that it was you have, I would give my U3 a chance to call it first, then come in strong with the call if U3 doesn't.