Incorrect instructions at plate meeting...

[gsf23]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Thanks for the comments.

I agree the issue should never have been brought up in the first place at a plate meeting. He had a fairly lengthy plate speech, but this was the only error in it; he just said more than needed to be said about several other things, too. (JMO)

I chose to keep quiet since the "harm" would be minor and even unlikely to come up, whereas a disagreement between umpires at the plate meeting would damage our crediblity as a team.

And, as I said, he called a very good game.

And how would your credibility as a team look if it did come up and your partner wasn't going to allow the runner? Would you then go and have a talk to him? What are you going to tell the coach?

"Well, coach, I knew that he explained the rule wrong before but I didn't want to say anything."

That will really help your credibilty. Or how about the next day when this coach comes out to argue that the other team can't use a CR because the umpires yesterday told us that that was the rule. Now how is your credibilty with that coach or with the other umpiring crew who has to deal with the problem you caused.

If your partner is going to be explaining rules at a plate meeting then you better be sure that he is giving the correct information. If you don't want to do it at the meeting then you need to pull him aside, get things straight before the game starts and make sure both coaches know what the correct rule should be.

Of course the real simple solution to all of this is don't conduct a rules clinic during your pre-game.