Blown Call From This Fall

[BretMan]

Since the board seems kind of slow this weekend...thought that I would post for comment a play from a fall tournament a few months ago.

I'm the plate umpire, no runners on, base umpire in A position. Batter hits long, high fly ball that is going to land in the vicinity of the rightfield fence.

I see that my partner is pivoting in (probably should have gone out on this one) and watching the runner touch first base. I head out into the infield to watch the ball.

The ball is coming straight down near the temporary outfield fence. F9 is going back and has a shot at a catch. The fielder and the ball arrive at the fence about the same time. Fielder gets twisted around, hits the fence and there is an explosion of fielder, ball and fence all in one spot.

From my vantage point, it appears that the ball hit the ground just inside the fence, then bounced over the (now partially collapsed) fence. I yell, "Dead ball!", and signal "two bases".

Okay so far....except...as I'm getting set to make the call, the base umpire (who had already pivoted in) turned his back to the infield, slid out toward the baseline (ignoring the runner) and simultaneously with me announcing "two bases" began signaling "home run"!

I reiterated "two bases", got the runner's attention and sent her back to second. Now we have a problem. Offensive team's coach is livid (maybe rightfully so). He starts laying into me and I tell him to hold off, we're going to straighten this out. I confer with partner- what do you have? He says, apologetically, that he had the ball clearing the fence. I tell him I think it bounced inside the fence first and I have a ground rule double. Partner then says, "It's your call" (ya think?). I step away and again signal "two bases".

Coach is really hot now! I tell him it's my call, we're sticking with it and let's play ball. Next batter doubled and that runner on second scored anyway.

Just to make things a little more interesting, our associations new UIC was watching this game.

After the game, before I get a few feet from the field one of the coaches from the defensive team intercepts me to ask about that play. Coach tells me that it honestly looked like the right call to him and he would have been just as mad if it had been ruled a home run. I tell him, "Well, at least two of us saw it that way!".

I get a few more feet and a parent from the offensive team intercepts me to let me know that he was sitting near the fence and that the ball clearly went over on the fly. I tell him, "Unfortunately, that's not how it looked to me- and I don't get the luxury of sitting right by the fence".

The next person to get to me is our new UIC. He wants to talk about "that play". I explain to him what I had and why I had it. He answer was, "At anytime during the play, did you see the base umpire's back?". I said that I did, but that was only after he had already pivoted into the infield. He seemed satisfied with that answer.

Not really a question involved here, as under the circumstances I'm certain that this was my call and the base umpire should have been watching the runner, not the ball. Just wondering if anyone has any comments or has dealt with a similar situation.