First Game of the Year: Brutal.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

If you are coming from the C position, there are ALWAYS other baserunners, so when could you use this without them being affected? There is always the potential for subsequent plays with other runners.

Agreed....there will always be runner(s) at second and/or third base. However, in the specific situation we are discussing, we more than likely have a banger at first base. Most, not all, of the time, the runners will advance a base safely or hold on the base they are at without a subsequent play. This is why I made the statement that the BU needs to be aware of the potential of a subsequent play and react accordingly.

That aside, do you really believe the teams and coaches see this as anything beyond the base umpire having the plate umpire make the call? Do they see this "last piece of information", or completely giving up the call?

As with most things concerning the mechanics of umpiring, I really don't care what the teams and coaches see or think about how we do our job, It's really not something they need or want to understand.

Let's ask SRW what happened in this specific case, when the coach decided to converse. I am willing to bet he focused on the PU, whom he saw as missing the call, not the BU whose call it was.

Do you think the outcome would have been any different if the BU had made (perhaps guessed) a call, then went to SRW for help and reversed his call? It comes down to the same conversation..."Coach, I had a (bad angle, blocked out, etc.) I asked my partner for help and made (or reversed) the call based on that information." PU's response to any question from the coach should be "Coach, my partner asked if I saw a (pulled foot, tag, etc) and I told him what I saw."

Although there are many times when going to your partner for help after making a call is appropriate, I believe that anytime a coach can get an umpire to go for help and reverse a call, even if it is valid, sends a message that the coach (of either team) can now go ask the umpire to get help on any call that s/he doesn't like. Coaches generally don't differentiate judgement calls from calls where an umpire may have not seen a piece of the play that his partner was able to.

Again, I'm not saying that going for help prior to making the call is the way it should be done in every instance, but it is a tool that the umpire can use when appropriate.