dead or foul

[CecilOne]

Originally posted by SC Ump
I've never been to one of the "Windlestat" or other professional baseball umpiring schools, but have heard that they teach that "dead ball" is only a situation, never a call to be made. They teach that in this situation the proper call for the base umpire is "TIME!" and for the plate umpire is "FOUL!"

They instruct that if a ball in play becomes a deadball and the play needs to be stopped, "time" should be called. I was told that if someone at the school called "Deadball!", that the experienced umpires, i.e. instructors, would all huddle around the ball and have a mock funeral for the baseball.

I'm not saying I agree with this, only that I have heard it is taught. [/B]

I think it's a useless distinction invented for evaluatorsor to make the school unique, but either way play is stopped, the ball is non-playable (comatose if not dead) and there is either a foul or an out.
Also, we would have fewer embarassing moments if we dropped this compulsion to make a sentence out of every call. Pronouns and verbs are not needed. And the first person pronouns imply subjectivity and personal opinion rather than objective application of the rules.