My FUBAR this weekend....

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

I agree; to a point. First part, completely, second part, partially.

Andy is a (don't know the exact title) UIC; the partner appears to be more of a newbie, by the nature of the FUBAR. Putting myself in Andy's place, I think that I would have a better shot at selling the coach (and teams, and parents, and .....) the result of the play.

If the partner is less of a newbie, he can acknowledge to the coach it wasn't his call to make, but if we are going to play ball without ejections, I now step in with "WE didn't handle this right, here's what we have to do by rule." I then repeat that the call at first belongs to me, and that I saw the safe, and safe it will remain.

With the added benefit, no doubt, that safe makes the timing of the runner from third moot. The other way around (I have out, he has safe), I can only pray that I caught a glimpse of the runner to give an educated guess, since PU obviously has his back to home). This isn't like "you don't guess an out", and "I didn't see the run score" doesn't have any validity, because you didn't see that the run didn't score, either. You give it your best SWAG (sophisticated wild-a$$ guess), and suck it up.

I'm not saying that you should let your partner fry - I don't care how bad or green s/he is, you just don't do that.

You basically have two options here. Either the umpire who made the screw-up (PU, in this case) explains to the coach that it wasn't his call, or the umpire whose call it was (BU, in this case) should be the one to pave things over.

Rank on the field should have nothing to do with who's speaking. However, a veteran umpire should definitely be present to back up the rookie, and if the rookie needs prepping beforehand, that's acceptable as well.

We had a situation in a SP tourney where the pitcher didn't take any pause whatsoever before delivering the next pitch. The PU called, "illegal, no pitch." The batter swung and knocked it to the outfield. The defense had pretty much stopped once they heard "no pitch," but the batter ran all the way to 2B. I, the BU, was the one who explained why we can't "uncall" a "no pitch." As I did so, I thought, "Hey, why am I explaining someone else's screw-up?!" Fortunately, I did so without embarrassing my partner, offered the OC the opportunity to protest (which was declined), and we went on our way.

But I still remember how pi$$ed I was to have to explain someone else's call. Strangely, he was an Elite umpire...