[Defiant]

In addition, once a ball has been called foul by an ump, that is it. This ump called it foul. The ump is supposed to wait to make that foul call. the call he made is one you make when the ball is fouled off someone's foot and then rolls fair. If the ump makes an incorrect call, it is like an inadvertent whistle in football, the play is dead and you go by the ump's call. Can you imagine if you had an ump calling foul on a ball off a player's foot, and the runners advanced to the next base every time anyway, just to be safe? The umps would go ape over the delay that caused.

A foul call means foul. If the ump was wrong, nothing you can do about it. The runners have to be able to rely on the ump. Here, what seems to have happened is that the ump realized it wasn't foul and then wanted to pretend that he hadn't called it foul because then he looks like he made a mistake. But instead, he made a bigger one, by giving a team a triple play.

[Defiant]

To add clarity to what I said, when it is not yet clear what will happen to the ball, the ump is to make no call, fair or foul, but to wait and only call "foul" when it could not possible be fair, for example if it is picked up in foul territory by a fielder. Once they make that call, that is it. Same with a fly ball down the line, if the ump yells "foul" on a ball down the right field line that goes into the corner, you don't have to run it out on the possibility that another ump with a better view will overturn the call. It is foul, even if it was actually fair. The play is over at that point.

There are plays that can be overturned if another ump had priority on the call, or the ump with priority asks for help. An "out" call can be made safe, a checked swing can be called a swing, etc. But a foul call is not one of those calls that can be changed. Either he made the call or he didn't. If he made the call, the play is over.

[onedoug]

But that the umps had a conference after the play and all decided to let it stand.

[Hebrews 11:6]

I suggest everyone has misinterpreted the umpire's hands-up gesture. The replay shows he appeared surprised by the pitch's location--essentially at the batter's throat--and both backed up and threw his hands up defensively. It was purely reactive and was not a call at all, even though the runners assumed it was because his hands were coincidentally in the "foul ball" or "time is out" position. After a second or two at the most, he noticed the ball's location in fair territory and pointed "Fair ball!" emphatically.

The runners should have run instantly when they saw the ball not in the air but on the ground and should have ignored the home plate umpire. There are base umpires who will tell them to stop and return to their original base on a foul ball. That those umpires did not do so is all we need to know: all four umpires agreed it was a fair ball.