Three wrongs don't make a right

[Duke]

Honestly, in this case, as a plate umpire, I would have come up with an emphatic FOUL BALL! Plates call with ground ball between plate and base with umpire on the line. Of course you would have had a discussion with the offensive coach at this point. I'd explain to him that it was my call as a plate umpire. Then after the game I would have a discussion with the U1 umpire....

[Cliffdweller]

Duke has the answer on this one!

[Tru_in_Blu]

Despite our pre-game review of responsibilities for chasing, base coverage, tag up responsibility, etc., we still ended up in this situation.

In the moment, I had a split-second to make a decision to call a foul ball or allow U1's call to stand. My immediate concern was to avoid a situation where 2 different officials call the same play out and safe. And I didn't want to appear to be "overruling" a partner.

We did get together to discuss after play had ceased. U1 immediately acknowledged his error in making the call in the first place. Again, considering the optics of the situation, we agreed to stay with his call. As mentioned in earlier posts, changing at that point would have brought on additional chaos. He was 12 feet away from the call and I was 68 feet away.

I was thinking about a batted ball being called foul that might have actually been fair, and how we typically don't "un-ring that bell". But how about the reverse, which is this situation?

Now, if I'm in a similar situation in a future game, I likely would opt to make the foul call. And in the pre-game discussion, I'd be sure to bring this situation up as an example of what not to do. Pre-pitch planning is very important in the 3 umpire system, particularly in situations where the officials haven't had a lot of experience with it.

[Duke]

You can un-ring a fair ball call. Actually had this happen last year in a HS game. I was on the line at first base. A little flare just over the first base bag that clearly hit foul just in back of the bag. My plate ump indicated fair. Runner kind of slowed going to first and most of the fielders stopped on the play. After the runner got to first, my plate ump figured he may have missed the call based on the actions of the players and myself. He was blocked out by the runner and first base player. He consulted with me and we overturned the fair call to foul.