Humorous what's the count exchange

[robbie]

Video speaks for itself....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS8CksnUJi8

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by robbie

Video speaks for itself....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS8CksnUJi8

Love the batter's reaction too.

[teebob21]

Oh....no.....

I know a couple of these umpires personally. They are sure going to feel sheepish in postgame and/or when they watch the video. I also know the Houston coach is not always good at saying the right thing when her team's been slighted. She had to be PISSED.

[BoomerSooner]

I'm curious as to how this happened. I mean that from an analyzing the situation perspective, not a critical one. I've tried breaking it down, and I'm just confused.

The only thing I can think of is that everyone got distracted by the
action surrounding the stolen base and missed the strike on the swing. Personally, I feel like the swinging strikes are the easiest to remember, but if that were the case in this situation, then the "forgotten" call would be the last pitch, which should also be pretty easy to remember.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be critical or assign blame. Mistakes happen. I just like coming at things from an analytical standpoint to try to determine the cause and how to prevent it.

[Andy]

Here is the backstory from one of the umpires in the video.

First pitch, swinging strike. PU basically gets caught up in the runner stealing and does not see the swing and calls the pitch a ball. Next pitch is a called strike and the PU gives the count as 1-1....this is when the confusion starts.

Defensive coach questions the count, PU goes to U3, then to coach, offensive coach then comes out, finally all four umpires get together.

The first pitch was ruled a ball...by rule this is a call that can be appealed due to the swing, but the appeal must happen before the next pitch. It didn't. Once the next pitch was thrown, that first pitch is forever a ball. This is what the offensive coach was saying. Once all four umpires got together, they reached the same conclusion. By rule, there was nothing they could do about the first pitch, since another pitch had been thrown.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by Andy

Here is the backstory from one of the umpires in the video.

First pitch, swinging strike. PU basically gets caught up in the runner stealing and does not see the swing and calls the pitch a ball. Next pitch is a called strike and the PU gives the count as 1-1....this is when the confusion starts.

Defensive coach questions the count, PU goes to U3, then to coach, offensive coach then comes out, finally all four umpires get together.

The first pitch was ruled a ball...by rule this is a call that can be appealed due to the swing, but the appeal must happen before the next pitch. It didn't. Once the next pitch was thrown, that first pitch is forever a ball. This is what the offensive coach was saying. Once all four umpires got together, they reached the same conclusion. By rule, there was nothing they could do about the first pitch, since another pitch had been thrown.

EXCEPT - only the PU thought is was a ball. No one else thought it was a ball. Look at the TV status display - it shows 0-1. The batter knew. The coach knew. The other umpires knew. There was no perceived need by anyone in the park to appeal so why would there be one? Sometimes you gotta fix things.

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by teebob21

Oh....no.....

I know a couple of these umpires personally. They are sure going to feel sheepish in postgame and/or when they watch the video. I also know the Houston coach is not always good at saying the right thing when her team's been slighted. She had to be PISSED.

I thought she handled it pretty well. I think the crew did a good job of explaining what happened and that they (the PU) had screwed up. You can see the U2 telling her "that's the rule" which has to apply to the fact she could not appeal the swing and miss after the second pitch was thrown. Coaches may not be happy, but they tend to at least understand when a crew screws up and admits they screwed up, which I really think is why she didn't put up more of a fuss than she did.