This discussion is the beauty of this board. Probably none of us will ever see this happen in a game without the defense responding. But what has happened is we have been forced to THINK and some have been forced to open the Rule book. There has been a lively discussion and undoubtably most of us have learned something new or at least something about how to look at the rules and how to apply them. This is good for us all.

copycat :D

It doesn't matter if it is realistic. Hypotheticals are good, because they allow us to develop insight into the rules with a defined situation and now apparently go off into a discussion of coverage mechanics.

Are you also tempted to call verbal obstruction when a fielder near you yells "TIME" and the runner stops and retreats?

On the other side of the coin, I think it would be fun to play a SP game with the look-back rule.

No, absolutely not. If the runner is as stupid as the fielder to believe that a player may call time instead of the umpire, shame on them.

But what if you believe it was done to try to make the runner think the official called it?

Though I don't think a player is smart enough to emulate the call, my response is still "Nope". Stupid is as stupid does. I am not the player's fairy godmother.

Not only do they need to play the game, but runners are the only people in the game which are allowed additional audio/visual aides on the field in the form of base coaches.

Good! :)