I was embarrassed for him!

Skahtboi · #1 (**permalink**) Sat Jun 28, 2003, 01:02pm

Last night I was working a Dixie Belles (15U) tournament. Last game of the evening, I was in the field and a colleague who umpires out of the same association that I do high school for was coaching first. Last inning of the game, colleague's team was down 20-5. (Fixing to have a run rule if his team doesn't score 6 runs.) R1 on first. B1 hits a grounder straight to F4 who charges, toward the diamond, makes a great one-handed grab and tosses to F6 for the out at second who then fires across the field to F3 to complete a beautiful DP. Now, before I continue, let me mention that F4's momentum carried her forward one step after the release of the ball, where she collided with R1. F4 didn't alter the direction of her progress or anything of that nature. As I am jogging back to the A position, my colleague(the coach) looks at me and asks, "What about that interference, Blue?" Dumbfounded that he would want a call against his own team I ask, "what intereference?"

"My runner and the second baseman collided. The fielder who doesn't have possession of the ball has to vacate the running lane," is his response.

"Coach, I am assuming you are referring to obstruction, and what I have here is incidental contact. The fielder's momentum carried her forward as she was completing the play. She cannot simply disappear when she releases the ball. It is the job of the runner to avoid the contact of a fielder making a play on the ball. Contact was incidental."

Coach: "That's bull!"

Next batter popped up to the infield for the third out. As the girl's line-up to the congratulate each other, every coach thank my partner and me for the game that we called, except the coach/colleague. As he walks past us he looks at me and says, "wish I could say 'good game Blue,' but that call was terrible." Yeah...that one call cost his team the game. It was all that I could do to keep from saying that, but I didn't. Like I said, I was embarrassed for him.

[Edited by Skahtboi on Jun 28th, 2003 at 04:19 PM]

bluezebra · #2 (**permalink**) Sat Jun 28, 2003, 02:15pm

Tell your HS assignor not to schedule you to work with this jerk any more.

Just out of curiosity, how can an infielder obstruct a runner who had already been putout?

Bob

paparada · #3 (**permalink**) Sat Jun 28, 2003, 02:59pm

I love how one call has caused you to be a bad official. Sorry coach, I didn't realize the one call I made that you didn't like caused the other team to score 20 runs against you.

Why don't they ever see that?

Skahtboi · #4 (**permalink**) Sat Jun 28, 2003, 04:31pm

Quote:

Originally posted by bluezebra
Just out of curiosity, how can an infielder obstruct a runner who had already been putout?

Bob

Obviously they can't, they can only interfere with them!

No but really...I don't think he even thought out what he was thinking. He was seeing the play through extremely biased eyes. My partner and I barely made it off the field without busting out and laughing at the blatant show of a lack of rules knowledge that he displayed.

As for working with him, I never do anyway. Our association uses a rating system that makes us eligible to call certain levels of play. He basically calls 1A and 2A schools and lots of JV play. I mostly call 4 and 5A stuff, so I won't be seeing him unless I have to fill in somewhere.

Yeah Paparada, I, single handedly cost them the game with that one call. That was the implication I got, even though his girls committed a dozen or more errors and were simply outplayed by the other team. Why can't they see the ridiculousness of this? I don't know. Sometimes a coach just can't see the play through the fog!

CecilOne · #5 (**permalink**) Sun Jun 29, 2003, 02:18pm

I'm not disagreeing with the play or followup, so don't get that out of these comments. The score does not matter, even if a call does cost a team a game. What matters is whether we are right or wrong. When a fielder (like F4 in this one) is making the play and doesn't do anything beyond that, I can't see how it could be obstruction. If the fielder is making a play, the runner must avoid the collision and so in this case could have interfered, if the contact messed up the DP. Sometimes, even when we blow a call or more, they will stay say "good game". Maybe they recognize the truth, maybe they always say that or maybe they won. Sometimes we blow a call or more and don't deserve a compliment. So be it, I don't pretend to be divine.

Also, the case doesn't state that the out came before the contact, but even if it did not, the point is the cause of the collision. If it were interference, it could be on a runner that is out if it prevented a DP.

I like Scott's handling of the conversation with the coach and post-gane restaint, but I try to avoid the congrats line and the coaches once it's over. Also, I'm not surprised at the coach's misunderstanding of the rule; but I am disappointed that, as an umpire, he didn't know better or at least accept your response.