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4 replies

umpire made a mistake on balls and strikes

T teabag259Member
Our team had a tournament game this past weekend. I coach an 8-9 year old team. Our league allows the players to steal home on a passed ball.We had a runner on 3rd and 2 outs. The batter had a 2-1 count. The pitch is thrown and the batter swings and misses. The ball gets past the catcher and rolls to the backstop. As this is happening the umpire yells "Strike 3". My baserunner steals home safely. The other teams catcher tried to get the ball quickly but was unable to make th play. Some of the kids on the other team started running off the field after hearing the "strike 3" call. The umpire made my baserunner return to 3rd base and disallowed the run saying that his mistake penalized the team in the field. I argued that it shouldn't matter and he shouldn't penalize our team for his mistake.

The umpire admitted after the game that he was unsure of the rule. We ended up winning anyway so the play didn't impact the outcome of the game.

What is the correct ruling on this play?
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MU Mr Umpire100+ posts
It is up to the defense to know the situation and to realize it was only 2 strikes. Plus, the defense didn't sound like they were affected by the call. So, why bother still?

But, I don't think he should have sent the runner back. There is no rule to cover specifically umpire mess ups. Since there is nothing specific, I think the runner should have scored in this situation. It is just an opinion only supported by 9.01(c) which is really avoided at any cost. I just don't know of any rule otherwise to support this kind of situation.
Last edited by Mr Umpire
Jimmy03Jimmy031,000+ posts
The rule is the ball is live on a strike. Also, the batter is not out on an uncaught strike three with two outs, or with less than two outs if first base is not occupied.

So, no matter what the umpire thought about the number of strikes, the ball was live and when the run scored an there was no reason to return the runner.

Bad umpiring.
MU Mr Umpire100+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Jimmy03:
The rule is the ball is live on a strike. Also, the batter is not out on an uncaught strike three with two outs, or with less than two outs if first base is not occupied.

So, no matter what the umpire thought about the number of strikes, the ball was live and when the run scored an there was no reason to return the runner.

Bad umpiring.
But, being 8/9 year olds, there is probably no U3K possibility. And, with 2 outs, Strike 3 kills any possibility of R3 scoring. The ball is live but, by this fact, R3 is prevented from scoring if PU deemed it to be, in fact, strike 3.

Where U3K is allowed, then the umpire is wrong regardless. But, given this, there is a "little" room for his "error" (IMO) to send the runner back. Not justifying it, just explaining why an umpire might think to do this in this particular situation.

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