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I have to apologize to the men in blue for a mistake that my 14U catcher son made. Man on third, two strikes, called strike three. My son starts toward the dugout and tosses the ball to the home plate umpire. Instinctively the umpire catches the ball and places it in his ball pocket.

Problem was that was only the second out!!!! The opposing coach was ready to go ballistic but realized at that point it is a dead ball – runner can’t advance. So loud enough for everyone to hear the coach belittles the umpire who took the abuse it in stride and the game resumed. My son sheepishly got back behind the plate.

Sorry Blue!
To our military men, women and families - You are all awesome - that flag is yours and I thank you for the opportunity for giving me the honor of removing my cap prior to every baseball game I see.
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Its Nice of you to offer an apology.....(we dont get many of those)....but in this case it is not neccesary.....In reality it is also the umpires fault......He, more than anyone on the field, needs to be aware of how many outs there are......

I had this exact thing happen to me........called third strike with runner on third.....catcher hops up and heads for the dugout and tosses the ball to me.........It hit me in the chest protector and dropped in the dirt...... I stepped back from it and said nothing............ R3 scored easily......

The Umpire should not have caught the ball.........and there are times when you deserve the flak you get when you make a mistake...

Also not sure what rules you were using but of course in NFHS rules the ball was dead.....

But in NCAA or OBR.....the ball is still live!........
Last edited by piaa_ump
I had a similar situation happen to me in college. I was batting and ball four got by the catcher and went to the backstop, I took off hard for first, and when I looked for the ball, it was still at the backstop, so I kept going.

As I approached second, the 2bm had a ball, but it wasn't the passed ball, that was still at the BS, so I kept running, and he looked at me like I had three heads. I ended up coming around and scoring. The original ball was still at the backstop. The 2bm, had tagged me, but I knew he had the wrong ball.

Let's just say the was a long discussion after the play Smile It was kind of funny, might a well laugh right. The ump had pulled a ball out of his bag after the passed ball, and gave it to the catcher, who seeing me headed for second promptly threw down, and I was tagged, but kept going.

Long and short of it, the ump said he made a mistake, called the ball dead and sent me back to first.

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