In my son's 12U AAA baseball game last night, an unusual scenario played itself out and I'd like opinions on if the umpire made the right call(s). Both for education of the team (players, coaches, parents) and potentially the education of the umpire.
Bottom of the 8th (2nd extra inning), bases loaded with 1 out. Home team down 10-9. Defense was in on the grass to prevent the run at home. 75 ft bases with grass infield and mound. 1 Ump at home using Fed HS rules.
Batter hits a blooper behind 2nd base. The umpire moves up the third base line about 20-25 ft. standing on the 3rd base line and calls "infield fly". While this isn't the crux of the problem, I do believe it was the inappropriate call given that the infield was in and the SS and 2nd baseman were both running with their backs to home plate to try to catch up to the blooper (about 20 ft off the ground max. height). The ball drops untouched and is picked up by the Center Fielder. Closest defender was probably 5-6 ft. It's pretty likely that they would have gotten 1 out at second or possibly a DP at 2nd and 3rd.
Seeing the ball drop, the 3rd base runner takes off for home without tagging. As he is running down the line he sees the Ump in his way and tries to go around him in foul territory. At the same time the Ump is moving backwards to try to get out of the runners way, also moving back in foul territory. The Ump and runner collide with the Ump falling forward to his knees (runner is 5'11" - 150lbs) and the runner catching himself with his hands to keep running (about 6-8 ft. from the baseline in foul territory).
So, here is problem #1. Should the ump have been on the base path (ever)? Should he have been on the 1st base side and not 3rd base side? Should he be in fair territory or foul? Is there such a thing as Umpire interference?
Continuing the play... I'm in the 1st base dugout so I have a really good view of the action.
The umpire is on his knees with mask in left hand and right hand on the ground to catch himself with head down and turned toward 3rd base, so no line of sight for the play behind him. His right hand was close to the base line, so he was knocked forward in the collision. The throw from the Center fielder is up the 3rd baseline towards the umpire/runner collision. The 3rd base runner continues on toward home as he and the catcher brush shoulders (catchers right and runners right) again knocking the runner off kilter. The throw was caught by the catcher about 6 ft or so in foul territory because it was so far up the line he kind of had to run it down (probably 10-15 ft up the line). From my view, the catch occurred at the same time as the shoulder brush and the catcher didn't make the tag on the runner.
Keep in mind that all this action was occurring behind the Umpire with his head turned toward 3rd.
His ruling on calling the runner out at Home was that he jumped over the catcher which is illegal in HS rules. While they did collide there was never a jumping, simply the off balance running that occurs after bumping the catcher, with perhaps 1 leg in the air as he was catching his balance.
So, problem #2. If, the Ump doesn't see the play (which I contend that he didn't) how should he call it? Because even if there was a tag, he would not have seen it since it was behind his back away from his line of sight. Given that the throw was up the line and where the catcher caught it in foul territory, there wouldn't have even been a play at the plate if not for the initial Ump/runner collision. Could the Umpire have taken that into account? What recourse is there for umpire interference?
The umpire went to his car immediately leaving no option for protest or getting the ruling correct (if it was improper).
Unfortunately, he had been doing a pretty decent job for the other 7 2/3 innings, so he's not a bad ump but started a series of events beginning with the questionable in-field fly call.
Thanks all.
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