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Reply to "2022 College Season"

@RJM posted:

You chose a picture that doesn’t show the entire story. It doesn’t show the pitcher’s view of the play. Show this play looking up the first base line from home plate. It’s obvious the pitcher had no chance. That’s my opinion. The call was made. I’m done.

Interesting you say that! I was thinking the same thing. What everyone doesn't see is the perspective of the home plate umpire who must make that call in real-time without the benefit of replay. In this case the collision at first base (while not having any bearing on the rule) most certainly influenced the call. That collision probably reenforced what the umpire observed (one of his many jobs is to look for running lane violations on every play at first) as the batter/runner starts in foul territory and moves to fair and then completely collides with the first baseman. He may have thought the 1B didn't catch the ball because he was taken out by the runner. Had the collision not occurred (direct path from outside the running lane) he MAY not have made the call. Had the batter/runner collided full-on (as it happened) without the running lane violation there would have been NO CALL.  Collisions at 1B happen all the time and there is no call because most of the time there is NO running lane violation.



Note in the frame below the baseball is in the 1B's mitt. It clearly drops out due to the collision (the white speck to the left of the 2B's foot is the umpires shoe, not the ball). Had the runner been in the running lane (even with the collision) he would have been safe as there would be no call for the umpire. In that case the play is what umpires call a "train wreck."

Simple rule, simple ruling.

I apologize for going on about it but while I do think umpires make some bad calls this is not one of them.

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