Base touch responsibilities

[Roger Greene]

Let me seek a bit of advice.

Sitch: R1 and R2, less than 2 outs. Batter hits to right center. R1 and R2 are off on the pitch. BR moving toward 1st base about 1/2 speed. I'm PU. I watch ball hit ground, glance toward 3rd, see R2 touch third. I position myself on 1st base line extended, see BR just short of 1st, take my off her to see R2 touch home, look up and BR has just rounded first. BU has moved inside diamond, seen R1 touch second. F8 makes throw to F5 and BU moves to position to make call. BR pulls up at 2nd base, R1 is safe at 3rd.

F1 receives the ball, and requests a dead ball appeal on BR at 1st to PU. I did not see a touch, so I immediately asked BU if he had the BR missing the touch at first. He did not, and ruled safe.

In post game we talked, and neither of us saw the BR touch first. We both saw her just before and just after rounding the bag. The "touch" at first was at nearly the same time R2 was touching the plate, and BU was moving to make a call at 3rd.

Questions?
(1) Was I correct in asking BU if he had a missed base on the appeal instead of ruling myself? (He ended up taking a little bit of heat from the coach on the call but nothing major. I still think coach, who was in first base dugout, just saw us occupied with leading runners and was trying to smoke us.)

(2) Anybody have any suggestions on how to pick up the simultanous tags by multiple runners in a 2 man system?

Thanks,
Roger Greene,
Member UT

[SamNVa]

Roger,

I think the two of you handled the play as well as any two man crew could have. The lead runners are always the primary responsibilities of the umping crew and you can only try your best to try and catch a glimpse of what the trailing runners are doing. Sometimes you get lucky timing and one of you is able to see a missed base by a trail runner, but most often the two of you are going to be hustling to watch the plays on the lead runners as in this case. As you can probably tell, I don't have any sage advice for how to cover this play any better, because with only two men watching 3 runners it just aint possible to see everything.

If you get heat from the coach, just ask him if he would be happier if you missed R2 not touching home and ruling her safe on appeal or the BR missing 1st.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Sam pretty much said it all.

Speaking ASA

PU has the lead runner and BU has all trailers. The appeal should never had come to you, but not knowing that she did touch the base, you did the right thing in going to your partner.

Sam is right about the priority assigned to the runners closest to scoring. They are more important that the BR in this case.