Thoughts on this SNAFU....

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by Andy

That is what the crew did.

However, my advice to them was a little bit different. I advised them to eat the call, take the heat from the coaches, and move on to the next inning. By inadvertently calling time, you have placed both teams at a disadvantage by not allowing the offense the opportunity to score and the defense by not allowing them the opportunity to get an out. Placing the batter runner on first and the other runner back at third base is an advantage to the offense while taking away the opportunity for the defense to make a play. Yeah, it's a cluster but I think in this case it's something that we just have to live with.

The problem with this solution is that they called a dead ball so that the batter-runner could not be put out, and, by rule, that BR just was not out. You cannot eat that call and live with the out, it never happened, and it cannot be justified. Even though the defense lost the opportunity to make an out, you simply cannot create one where one doesn't exist to "fix" that.