intentionally dropped ball

[steveshane67]

Originally Posted by BretMan

I find it hard to believe that he has: Discussed this very play with "every umpire he knows", and; That to a man they have all decided to ignore the written rules of the sanctioning body they're working for and just make up their own interpretation.

Maybe he only knows, like, two or three umpires!

That's strange. Did he bother to explain why he and every umpire he knows does this?

i cant remember his exact reasoning, but he said something to the effect that if a SS guided a ball to the ground hed not only kill the play but give the player a warning for deception. this ump has been working for ~20 years and made it seem like it was pretty standard operating procedure in the boston area for slow pitch. Ive been playing softball in boston area for about 3 years (~75-100 games/per) and never seen it called the "ASA way".

as i alluded to in my OP, a few months ago, i was playing SS, 1st and 2nd 0 outs, a soft liner to my left, i guided the ball to the ground, tagged R2, stepped on 2nd and was in the process of throwing to 1st when the ump ruled IDB.

I had always been under the impression that the ASA rule was the same as MLB, so i only try it if its a new ump to "test" his rule knowledge (and bc its a bush league play). when he called IDB, i actually thought to myself this guy aint half bad and even told him nice call in between innings. now i guess i can add that to the list of times ive been screwed over by an ump....(sarcasm)