When to kill the play?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by DaveASA/FED

My personal opinion is I would kill it in that play you see in the video. Will it make a difference? I'm not a doctor, but I have been a volunteer EMT for 20+ years and when I'm in the witness chair I want to say I killed the play immediantly to get that player medical care ASAP. Will 10 seconds make a difference in treatment for her swelling on the brain? Maybe, maybe not the "golden hour" might not be impacted....but it might make a difference again when I'm sitting in the witness chair and I killed it immidentaly vs 10-60 seconds later. In this play you have the ability to really time it...but what if they tried to double off R1 on 1B and it was an overthrow and you ended up moving on to 3B could be an extra minute or two right??

Ok the above is after reviewing the video and being able to think about what I would do....bottom line is in a game setting I would react to that impact and kill it right away out of reaction, not necessarly well thought out on purpose!! Again I agree with those that say anything that could be life threatening head, chest etc I'm killing it. I will discuss that with a coach ANYTIME over discussing it with a grieving parent. Again I'd rather have to award bases or outs vs have to explain why I didn't let medical attention get to a player with a life threatening injury ASAP. Just my opinion.

Dave is correct. Life threatening injuries require the ball to be killed immediately.

I have taught my new basketball officiating students to kill the ball immediately when it is a head, neck, or back injury. Injuries to the shoulder, arm, hand, legs, and feet are injuries are the type that one can use his or her judgment as to when to kill the ball. BUT, the head, neck, or back injuries are the ones that need to be killed immediately; I would had another injury that in both large ball and small ball games where we should kill line shots to the chest that cause the player to do down. This type of injury can be catastrophic.

Always (with apologies to the late J. Dallas Shirley) error on the side of caution.

MTD, Sr.