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I think that this may stir up some controversey...

Runner on second one out, fly ball in foul territory approaching dead ball area/stands (no fence), third baseman catches ball falls to the ground, gets hurt, in obvious pain, after about 5 seconds of obvious extreme pain, drops the ball (I am the only one that sees this because it was subtle and everyone was blocked by this from the way he was on the ground. Runner had tagged up from second and scored since no one realized that he kept going. Since the player is being attended to I tell my partner what I saw and he said that we will rule it a catch, I then asked if he fell into the dead ball area, because the runner would have had only one base then, and he said he stayed in the whole time. After we make the ruling, the defense appeals that R2 left early, I had that he did not, so they got all ****ed off. This is one of those situations that I'm ****ed that he said that he wanted to call it a catch because the fielder did not voluntarily take the ball out of his glove, it literally rolled out...however, if I had called no catch, the correct call, everyone would have went crazy.

To top it off the runner on second was only on second base because of a possession catch/no catch ruling. He was stealing second and was very out, but the ball skipped to the second baseman on a hop, when he went to show it to me, the ball was moving in the glove, and I was nit-picking, it was moving so I yelled "SAFE NO POSSESSION OF THE BALL", try explaing that to the kid who just showed you and the whole crowd the ball, but it was moving in his glove...anyways...this was a CRAZY game, same game as previous post wehere my partner got followed to his car...In the second inning, I also came up too quick on a call and called a BR out, after a second I realized he had it by a quarter step...it was pretty close, but I should have had it.
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Johntaine....

There is a fine line in umpiring baseball, sometimes its a little on one side or the other...the rules are set, yet the application of the rules in the actual context of a baseball game can be vastly different....

You can call every balk, technical or otherwise and enforce each rule to the fullest extent and be 100% supportable by the book...yet be considered an OOO and never move up or get assigned more or better games...

to your points....on the catch/no catch

quote:
(I am the only one that sees this because it was subtle and everyone was blocked by this from the way he was on the ground.


If you are the only one who saw this as not a catch and your partner says we are calling it a catch.....call it a catch.....I know technically even after 5 seconds it takes a "voluntary release" to be a catch, everyone there is expecting it to be ruled a catch.......dont bring grief down on your crew by overuling the catch....

On the posession/no catch...

quote:
I was nit-picking,


YES you were........again technically Im sure you can support it from the rule book defintion of securely gloving the ball, but thats too fine a hair to split.....

quote:
I also came up too quick on a call and called a BR out, after a second I realized he had it by a quarter step...it was pretty close, but I should have had it.


This is fixable.......timing...timing....timing....slow down....see the play....call it in your head......sound off the call......make the physical mechanic....

experience will cure that ill........


Keep working hard on your game......
piaa is right, I don't see the 'controversy', in that all this is really a game-management issue that can only come from experience (good and bad), not out of the book. As you can see, those who say 'I can just buy a rule book, read it, and be as good an umpire as those clowns' are woefully misinformed. A lot of the time, its the parents in the stands who think this way.

There's a concept named "the expected call" that you need to adjust to, and its not really possible to get across on a forum but requires experience and a good mentor to impart it. In your cases, as piaa said the play at Second should have been called an out - the distinction of a ball rolling a little in a glove after the throw beat the runner by a mile, and you are the ONLY one who can see that, well.....you went looking for trouble and you found it.

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