A mechanics issue

[bkbjones]

Not really an issue, but food for thought.

College fall ball. SRW is PU, Promising Rookie is BU, moi is evaluating and chatting up pretty women.

R2 and R3, less than 2 outs. BU is in C. Low line drive hit to left, fairly close to foul line. BU comes inside to take tag on R2. PU has great position for catch and tag at 3B. R3 brain farts and doesn't tag up, then dashes back to the bag. LF throws a rope to 3B for a banger, and R3 is out.

It was a great call.

SRW was there to make it. BUT...he saw promising rookie come dashing over toward 3B. It was obvious BU was going to make the call, so SRW backed off and let him call the out.

Now, the whole thing looked much more fluid than what you might think while reading this, which led to considerable discussion after the game at the park and while sampling the finest offerings of malted barley.

WHAT IF...

PU has to be up the line considerably because of fair/foul and catch/trap. One "problem" is that this leaves HP a little open from an umpiring perspective. While I have no doubt SRW would have been in great position to make any call, still...

The way it worked out, BU covering this made a lot of sense. Of course, there are problems with it, including lack of coverage on R2.

Just searching for thoughts...