Semi-finals of a tournament two bitter rivals playing
Background- My teams are aggressive base running teams and sometimes umpires call time out because they assume a play is over. It's a pet peeve of mine when umpires call time when all the baserunners almost back to the base and the ball is in the circle. I realize it speeds the game up, but there's always the chance that the pitcher might lose her mind and make a bad throw to a base.
Another pet peeve of mine is coaches sitting on their stupid buckets outside the dugout. I've seen more than one bucket coach get hit by an errant throw and cause a deflection that changed the probable outcome of the play.
Here's the story: My team is leading 3-1 late in the game and we are facing a pitcher who at the time is undefeated in her young career (10U at the time of the story but she pitched at the 14U nationals this season). Her team hits well, but aside from her striking out a lot of people they are pretty weak defensively and we are giving them fits bunting and running the bases.
My daughter is on first and she's a champion sprinter. My batter singles and my daughter goes first to third and rounds aggressively. The throw comes in to the pitcher out of the circle and my daughter stops and starts returning to third.
The opposing coach get off his bucket assuming the play is over and starts walking toward the field. He gets to the foul line and the two runners are both still off the base by a few steps but headed back, and the pitcher is walking to the circle. He says, "Blue, can I have time?" and steps into fair territory before the field ump responds, so I send my daughter home. The field ump acknowledges him and starts to raise his hands to signal time, but then realizes there is a play going on. The pitcher throws home but the throw is late, and the batter takes off for second on the throw.
His argument is, "Why were you raising your hands if time wasn't being called." My comment is, "You can't penalize me because he entered play with a live runner." The two umps and coaches are having a discussion and the coaches are a little heated.
The field umpire who was calling the time out said, "We screwed this up. Now we have to make it right." Those magic words chilled both coaches out and everyone became really good listeners.
The home plate umpire, who runs a really good game, says, "The runner on third was already going to score before you came onto the field, so we are counting the run, but the batter took second on the throw after you lifted your arms to call time, so she has to go back."
Now, I know this is a fabrication, because I sent her because I was mad that he was walking on the field, but it was a nice compromise that both teams seemed able to live with.
If you were the TD or UIC what would you have ruled?
Background- My teams are aggressive base running teams and sometimes umpires call time out because they assume a play is over. It's a pet peeve of mine when umpires call time when all the baserunners almost back to the base and the ball is in the circle. I realize it speeds the game up, but there's always the chance that the pitcher might lose her mind and make a bad throw to a base.
Another pet peeve of mine is coaches sitting on their stupid buckets outside the dugout. I've seen more than one bucket coach get hit by an errant throw and cause a deflection that changed the probable outcome of the play.
Here's the story: My team is leading 3-1 late in the game and we are facing a pitcher who at the time is undefeated in her young career (10U at the time of the story but she pitched at the 14U nationals this season). Her team hits well, but aside from her striking out a lot of people they are pretty weak defensively and we are giving them fits bunting and running the bases.
My daughter is on first and she's a champion sprinter. My batter singles and my daughter goes first to third and rounds aggressively. The throw comes in to the pitcher out of the circle and my daughter stops and starts returning to third.
The opposing coach get off his bucket assuming the play is over and starts walking toward the field. He gets to the foul line and the two runners are both still off the base by a few steps but headed back, and the pitcher is walking to the circle. He says, "Blue, can I have time?" and steps into fair territory before the field ump responds, so I send my daughter home. The field ump acknowledges him and starts to raise his hands to signal time, but then realizes there is a play going on. The pitcher throws home but the throw is late, and the batter takes off for second on the throw.
His argument is, "Why were you raising your hands if time wasn't being called." My comment is, "You can't penalize me because he entered play with a live runner." The two umps and coaches are having a discussion and the coaches are a little heated.
The field umpire who was calling the time out said, "We screwed this up. Now we have to make it right." Those magic words chilled both coaches out and everyone became really good listeners.
The home plate umpire, who runs a really good game, says, "The runner on third was already going to score before you came onto the field, so we are counting the run, but the batter took second on the throw after you lifted your arms to call time, so she has to go back."
Now, I know this is a fabrication, because I sent her because I was mad that he was walking on the field, but it was a nice compromise that both teams seemed able to live with.
If you were the TD or UIC what would you have ruled?