How would you score it?
 

Men's Slow Pitch -ASA Rules

Local Rules 5 Homerun Limit
Any homerun after 5 is an out.

Playing at night under the lights.

Fenced in field

One umpire

Batter hits ball to left field, left fielder runs to the fence appears to put glove on ball at the fence (out of view of PU because the lights don't illuminate that part of the field so PU can't tell whether it would have cleared fence) Left fielder crashes into the fence and the ball goes over the fence. How would you score it?

If I can't see it, I can't call it. That would be a home run. If they've already hit their limit, that's an out.

If you see the ball hit the fielders glove, then go over the fence... 4 base award, BR (and everyone in front of him) scores, but it's not a home run, doesn't count towards the 5, nor is it an out if more than 5 already.

But you can only call what you see.

This is one of those weird, rare cases where if an umpire DOESN'T see something happen, it can be an out. Most other plays, it's the other way around. ;)

I vote four base error.

Generally, I have found that I'm only able to rule on what I see. If I see the contact, it's a 4-base award, and NOT a home run. If I don't ... well, it's gotta be a home run.

There's no way for us to accurate make the call from the keyboard. You have to see it in real life (which is the situation for a lot of these "alleged" incidents on the internet).

If you question was a scoring question unrelated to the game, e.g. was it a hit or an error, I would say do what ever you feel. Since this situation does have an impact on the game, you would need to score it as the umpire called it: home run.

If there was a call at home plate that was "out of view of PU", I hope you wouldn't rule it an out just because you disagreed with the umpire's safe call.

Sounds to me like this is a case where one could accurately use one of the old maxims:

When in doubt, call him out. :D

Of course, I would never use that in any other case. No. Never. Honest. Never ever. Nein. Nyet. Non. Cannot and can not. Will not and won't. :rolleyes:

Then you are on the wrong board.

Methinks he was being facetious. :cool:

Or god I hope he was!