Can you abandon your at bat?

[RadioBlue]

I completely agree we had luck on our side. (I'll take it!)

Bret: I cannot recall if I gave the count after the foul bunt, or not. But as is my standard practice, I would have. I do remember giving the count on the 3-2 pitch. I never noticed the batter give any reaction. However, if I recall correctly, there might have been an offensive conference during. If so, that would have been a good time for the coach to tell the batter what's going on and not to say anything as the OC was expecting an abandonment out should discovery be made.

KJ: I'm not exactly sure how we should have handled this differently and I'm certainly open to suggestions. To me, if U1 saw something funny he should have shut things down and came to me so we could get it straigtened out. His lack of confidence in the situation (outs, count, etc.), kept our crew from keeping the situation under control.

I think the only person who knew exactly what was going on while it was occurring was the OC. And he was fearful to correct the situation because of what he thought might be negative consequences. Even the DC must not have known the sitch because when the improper B3 grounded out, R1 moved up from 2nd to 3rd. It's the the DC's advantage to appeal at that point since they would get to back the runner up 60 feet.

As far as the UIC goes, when I gave him the situation, he asked me what I thought. I told him my initial reaction was abandonment. He said, "Usually your first reaction is the correct one." I told him I didn't think that was correct in this case. I asked him, "What is she abandoning? She is not a runner or even a batter-runner. She does not 'occupy' home. I think it's BOO." At that point he got called away to other duties and those of us in the umpire tent at the time discussed the play. We were, probably, 70/30 split in favor of BOO.