Touch of Second on Bunt

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Manny A

Had this play in a JUCO game, and wanted to get your take.

Two-man crew, with me on bases. R1 on first. Batter bunts a few feet up the first base line. F2 picks up the ball, and throws out the BR on a banger. R1, in the meantime, is heading for third, and the throw from F4 who was covering first is too late.

As I move over to the left side of the infield, I'm thinking, "How the heck did R1 make it to third safely on that?" Then it dawned on me that I had no clue whether or not R1 touched second. She could have rounded second a few feet in front of the bag, for all I knew.

So I talked to my partner about it between innings, and he said he had trailed the BR looking for a lane violation, and then hightailed it over to third to take the call there. Like me, he never saw R1 at second base.

I believe the touch of second is the BU's responsibility, but under those circumstances, there was no way I could watch. If I had turned my head to see R1, the play at first would have exploded on me as I turned back towards that bag. The PU had a better shot at looking there from his position.

Is this a situation where we should deviate from the norm, and cover it through a good pre-game?

Has anyone ever noticed Manny has a shitload of games with a lot of issues and questions?

Remind me not to ever umpire in NVa.

Meanwhile, this is one reason why I believe people place too much emphasis on trailing the BR with runners on base.

The "trail" is for an extra set of eyes just for an "in case" type of event. While I support the "trail", I do not support the point that there is a responsibility for the PU to watch the play at 1B if there is a need for him/her to be watching elsewhere. That runner should belong to the PU. AND it is a black hole in the mechanics that no one seems to want to address. It was raised last year when the mechanics talked about the lead runner, the last runner, but didn't say much about those in between.

As a PU, I'm hanging back a little and I will try to watch both runners and odds are, I at least be able to tell if the R was near 2B and not taking a short cut.