Lost championship: player joins dogpile before touching home

I'm surprised the umpire made the call. Whether it was right or wrong, I'm just surprised.

Assuming the detail provided are factual, it was the only call to make.

I'm more surprised some coach or assistant coach was not making sure bases and plate were being touched.

I have no idea if the boy touched home or not but if he didn't then you got to make the call. I will say I didn't see anybody from the defensive team paying that much attention to ask for the appeal. Obviously somebody was but I don't see them. No way of saying if it's a good or bad call because we can't see the film clearly.

Why would the offensive team be allowed on the field while play was still in progress anyway? If the runner hadn't scored, and everyone is already piling on at second base(I couldn't get the video) wouldn't this lead to a call against the offensive team anyway?

Wise to the error, Newington catcher Tyler Barrett held the ball, stood on home plate and looked over to home plate umpire David Bindas, who promptly called Sprulli out, ending the eighth inning

It looked like he scored to me...

The runner was on first or second. How was he 'out', if the catcher didn't tag him? There was no force.

I saw this on youtube. The guy said the same thing- the catcher stood on home with the ball and the umpire signaled 'out'. Why didn't he have find the runner in the pile of players and tag him?

It's an appeal play. No different if a guy hits a triple and misses 1st. Throw over to the bag and touch the base.

One thing I noticed from the video. Both the catcher and pitcher had there heads down and didn't even watch the kid come home. Someone else had to see it and told the kid to go touch home. Ump had a better view than the camera, but sure looked close too me.

Missing home is different from any other base. If the runner is not in the act of returning to touch the plate, the fielder needs only to touch home and appeal. See FED Caseplay 8.2.2M, and OBR 7.10(d).

A separate issue: One of the tenets of umpiring is that the umpire must actually see that a base has been missed in order to uphold the appeal. In two man crews, it is often not possible to observe all the runners at every base, and the participants just have to accept that limitation.

In the video posted here, there was a 4 man crew, which should allow the touch or miss of home to be observed. However, the plate umpire has such poor positioning that it is hard to believe that he actually saw a touch or miss. From the video, if the runner did miss, it wasn't by much. I doubt the umpire really saw what happened.

quote:

In the video posted here, there was a 4 man crew, which should allow the touch or miss of home to be observed. However, the plate umpire has such poor positioning that it is hard to believe that he actually saw a touch or miss. From the video, if the runner did miss, it wasn't by much. I doubt the umpire really saw what happened.

My experience has been that when umpires (and officials in other sports too) see a game coming to a close like that, they're already starting to move in the direction of getting off the field so they miss this type of call. I had it happen to our team when I was in high school in the regional final-- runner missed home plate, but by the time we went to appeal it the two umpires were already at the gate to leave the field!

I say, if you see something, call it. Had there not been an appeal, would this umpire have driven home from the state championship knowing the kid that scored the winning run never touched home?

Does this conversation make any sense?

"Ow. That black widow spider just bit me."

"Yeah. I saw him climbing up your back."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask me."

I don't think you fully understand the consequence of asking umpires to act outside the rules.

You obiviously do not like the appeal rule, but you cannot ask us to not properly enforce it.

I find it incredulous that a coach/fan/parent is advocating that umpires ignore the rulebook.

I find it incredulous that an umpire would ignore an infraction. How's that?

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:
I find it incredulous that an umpire would ignore an infraction. How's that?

The umpire did not ignore the infraction. He observed it and then followed the rules and awaited an appeal.

He performed his job, perhaps not as you would have him, but in accordance with the rules of baseball. Your gripe is more properly aimed at the rules makers, not the umpire.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimmy03:
Your gripe is more properly aimed at the rules makers, not the umpire.

That's correct.

Had a similar situation this year. Two outs, bases loaded. Runner at first watching the winning run cross home. He stops running to second and joins celebration. Umpires (2 man crew) didn't see. Game over.

Losing team furious. But what can the umpires do? Plate was watching the plate. Field was watching batter/runner touch first.

imo, most plate umpires do watch to make sure home plate is touched.

If the team had not run out onto the field, maybe the runner would have looked back to see if the umpire made a call and tagged at that point. He abandoned the play.

When I first read this, I thought, no way! Did this happen again?

Had a similar thing happen to me during my senior year. We were already up 10-0. I hit a home run over the center field fence. I was greeted at home by my team...slapping hands....get to the dugout....and I was called out at home for missing the plate. The other team appealed. I was so caught up in the moment that I never touched home. I was very embarrassed. The next day, the newspaper had it listed as a three run triple. Still have the article after all these years.

My next at bat, I hit a double. The SS asked who the idiot was that missed home plate? I said, "It was me" and we both had a laugh.