Posted on 04/22/2010 5:53:22 AM PDT by Federalist Patriot
My understanding is that it would have been illegal had the catcher also been off the ground, but since both feet were on the ground, and there was no contact, it was a legal play.
Some youth leagues and slow-pitch softball leagues have by-laws against head-first slides. If yours wasn’t one of them, then it was up to your coach to talk with the ump.
He needed to first (calmly) clarify what the ruling was. (So your saying he was out because his hand was on the base when he was tagged, not his foot, right?) If the ump says that’s correct, then the coach needs to say “I believe that is an incorrect rule interpretation. We need to play this game under protest.” And then he needs to make sure the scorer records it in the scorebook.
Once the umpire tells a player to “shut up or you’re done,” there is nothing constructive the player can do. For the coach, the key words are “rule interpretation” and “under protest.” (You can’t protest a judgement call, only rule interpretation.) (It’s important to get him to say what he saw first, so he can’t change his story and say he tagged the runner before his hand got to the base.)
I guess in this case you learned from someone else’s mistake....
hh
I didn’t put up an argument because I had pulled a phantom tag earlier in the game (I play 3rd base) fielding a slow roller and wheeling around back to the plate to tag a runner going to 3rd with my glove. Only problem was the ball was in my other hand. The guy was called out and I made the switch so quickly, no one caught it. Even the runner thought he was out. This ump was having a bad day, and I decided not to prolong it.
How fast did this make the rounds to every baseball club? They all learned something new. It’s amazing that it’s taken this long for someone to do this. It would be so cool to see it done in the majors. How about the game winning run in extra innings in the World Series?
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