Not calling "Foul ball"

[Andy]

My group does not want the obvious foul balls verbalized or signaled. Now the questions becomes.... define "obvious".

If I remember correctly, NCAA umpire training tried to instill this philosophy a few years ago...don't signal or call the obvious foul balls.

What they found was that the definition of "obvious" varied greatly from umpire to umpire. Coaches were complaining that balls that landed a foot outside the foul lines were not being called or signaled. Again, if I remember correctly, the NCAA umpires manual had to put some verbiage in something like..."any ball that lands within approx four feet of a foul line on either side must be signaled if fair and signaled and verbalized if foul."

So it may be to your benefit to have your group provide some guidelines around what is considered an "obvious" foul ball.

Remember...common sense isn't.....