Requesting help from your partner
 

As an offshoot of the Mechanics post, I want to post this question:

During a "discussion" with a coach about a call, does anyone here volunteer to go to their partner for help, or do you wait for the coach to ask?

I have had some situations where I have made a call based on what I saw, the coach comes out (properly) to ask about the call, I tell him/her what I saw and the coach says they saw something different (excluding judgement). I'm thinking to myself.."OK, coach. Ask me to go to my partner." But s/he never does. I'm not going to volunteer..agree or disagree?

I will give you a positive "it depends". If it is a discussion, I want to give the coach every benefit of attempting to get the right call; depending on the level of play, my level of confidence in my call, and the congeniality of the conversation, I will willingly steer the coach to that conclusion (me: "Would you like me to check what my partner saw from his/her position?").

If the coach is showing off, yelling, waving arms, being boisterous, s/he will need to do everything right to get that consideration from me. And, if I am positive about my call, I will not hang my partner by pretending to ask.

If it is a matter of just pure judgement, i.e. they think that the ball beat the runner to first when I rule that the runner beat the ball, then I will never place the burden of my call on my partner, no matter how "properly" or "improperly" I am asked. The call was based on my judgement the first time that I made it, and considering my positioning on the call versus that of my partner's, it seems unfair to presume upon them.

However, if there is a question on a piece of info I may have missed that my partner may have seen (swipe tag that missed, pulled foot, bobbled ball...etc.), and if asked properly by the coach, then I will go to my partner. I will always make my call based on the information that I have, and if the coach doesn't have a question about it, then I see no need to bother my partner with it.

Any Umpire is doing a disservice to him or herself and your umpire brethren if you don't go to your partner. The whole point of the exercise is to get the call RIGHT. If you have a doubt then please go to your partner and forget about the semantics.

I'm in agreement with Steve's post. I can't think of anything to add to it. I've asked a coach if they'd like me to check with my partner about a pulled foot/tag/some other specific item.

Uh, no - we dont need a football type round table after every bang bang play... the gut call is usually the right call.. or certainly close enough to live with from this guy in blue.

So, I agree with the above, if there is info i maybe couldnt tell and if properly asked by the coach, I'll go for help to see if by partner saw something that might convince me to change my call, other than that - i consider it just venting by a coach, virtually irrelevent, and I'm certainly not going to go for help just because its a close play that could have been seen one way or the other.