Calling Time Out

Time should not be called unless there is a reason. Dead ball, coach talking to pitcher or player, or a catcher going out to talk to pitcher, or umpire cleaning home plate. Other than a few, it is not men's slow pitch. Ball stays live.
In this situation, umpire was wrong. Unless, you are leaving out that the umpire called time out, the ball was alive. The only one who can call time out is the umpire. Player can only request.

First, players need to understand that umpires can't be used to deprive the offense the opportunity to advance. For whatever reason, increasingly over the past 20 years, defensive players seem to have been coached to ask for time as soon as the field the ball or receive it from the outfied.

Heck, I've even had varsity center fielders ask time as they "run" the ball in rather than throw it. They simply don't want to risk a bad throw.My initial response is "no."

It is obvious that in the OP, with a runner still off base, the defense was trying to get the umpire to kill play rather than throw the ball to the pitcher or attempt a play. No umpire should call time in that scenario.

When a defensive player requests time, I will make sure that any runners are on their base and make the judgment that they are not looking for the opportunity to advance before granting the request.

rarely..........I keep the ball alive as much as possible.....

What about a batter? A pitcher takes his sign, and as he's coming set or even before he breaks to the plate- how often do you NOT call it? I don't understand when umps don't call it.

Heck if the ump wouldn't have called "time" Sunday afternoon the Cardinals and Astros wouldn't have emptied the dugouts and bullpens

Runner slides into 2nd on a steal, ball is thrown into the outfield, but the runner not realizing this has called time. What do you do then? Since the runner is not making any attempt to advance, can or should I grant time even though the ball is in the outfield?

Don't call time unless there is a reason. I would never call time with the ball in the outfield unless it was out of play or I thought there was a serious injury. The DM can go nuts all he likes, it won't change anything except maybe how much of the game he sees.
There is a local SrLL field I have worked for years. I had a manager insist if the base popped loose it was automatically a dead ball. I asked what happened if the ball was thrown into the outfield, where did he want his runner? Of course he wanted him to try to advance to third. I told him he couldn't if the ball was automatically dead. He says it wouldn't be in that case. I told him you can't have a sometimes automatic deadball. He never understood it.
Bottom line don't let the offense try to make you the tenth member of the defense.

Time is for setting aside live play for easily determined reasons. It is neither an offensive nor defensive advantage. Time is to no one's advantage except to the coordinated play of the game.

quote:

Originally posted by tojake:
When is a play considered "finished" so that it is appropriate for a fielder to request and be granted a time out?

Jaksa/Roder define the concept of continuous action which I think is useful in determining at what time it is appropriate to grant time.
"Continuous action: An uninterrupted progression of play starting with the pitch and ending typically when the runners have ceased trying to advance, and the defense has relaxed and is returning (or has returned) the ball to the pitcher or the pitcher's mound."

Note that this definition requires that both offense and defense have stopped trying, and are waiting for the next pitch (or pick-off attempt).

Generally speaking IMO time should not be granted during continuous action.

Furthermore, as has already been discussed here, it typically isn't necessary to grant timeout when play has relaxed.