A way to ruin a game is if you:
34. Did not tell a coach his team broke the rules.
[Except for PRO rules, amateur ] baseball (softball as well) has a wonderful feature called the "delayed dead ball."
Basketball has nothing like that built into the rules, but officials have devised a change in the mechanics called "the slow whistle," which allows the referee to see an infraction and ignore it, based on the outcome of the play.
Football has something akin to "delayed dead ball," where the offended team may decline a penalty and take the result of the play. Also similar to baseball, the "false start" provision is an immediate dead ball. A false start followed by a quarterback sack equals a false start: The defense has no choice but to take the five yards.
But the official in football has to throw a flag. Now everybody knows something happened. The umpire has no flag; therein lies the potential for ruining a game.
Edna, TX, entertains Victoria, TX, NBC sanctioned game, 1957. In one of the most remarkable games of my career, I had two penalties ignored — and two identical penalties enforced. Unfortunately, I didn't know what to do in those days, and I darn near ruined the game.
Note: It was just my third year of umpiring, and I hadn't yet become the expert I am now. (grin)
First, let me describe the four plays.
Play 40: Edna hitting. B1 hits into the gap. As he rounds first, he brushes into the first baseman, losing perhaps half a step. He rounds third, then hustles back to the base. Neither my partner nor I did anything! Heck, we didn't know what to do; nobody had ever trained us except at a game — briefly.
Play 41: Edna hitting. In an amazing coincidence the same batter hit into the same gap, and the same first baseman got in his way. This time, B1 was out at third. "Obstruction!" I said, belatedly — and canceled the out.
Play 42: Victoria hitting. R2. B1 swings and muscles the ball into left field with R2 stopping at third. The catcher's glove nicked B1's bat on the swing. When it happened I said, but not loudly: "Catcher's interference." After the ball was returned to the mound, I called the next batter to the plate.
Play 43: Victoria hitting. R1. A different B1 swings and pops up in the infield. The same catcher's glove had brushed B1's bat. "That's interference!" I said, loudly this time. I canceled the out and awarded B1 first, which forced R1 to second.
Now the fact is, I nailed all four calls. Not bad for a 20-year-old with no training. And yet I was in terrible trouble after Plays 41 and 43. I don't want to belabor this by trying to recreate the horrible rhubarb that ensued. My notes tell what happened, but my Baptist training wouldn't let me write down what the skippers had said.
In Play 41 the Victoria coach couldn't understand why B1 wasn't out at third because he had seen the same interference (he meant obstruction) earlier, and I had done nothing. He was not moved by my protestation that B1 had got all he could get on the play.
In Play 43 it was the turn of the Edna coach, who claimed I had called catcher's interference earlier and done nothing. Now all of a sudden I'm doing something. How can that be?
Peter Osborne would argue that both coaches probably knew the rules, so both coaches probably knew I had the plays right. But, Peter would say, they both knew I was a relative rookie and might be easy to manipulate for games later in the season if they generated doubt in my mind on these plays.
Today. sitting in my study, I know what I should have done for Plays 40 and 42. Those frightening arguments led me to Carl's First Law of Assessing Penalties:
When any penalty is to be ignored, call both coaches to the field and explain why — carefully.
For Play 40, I would explain that obstruction had occurred at first, but the batter received all he could expect on the play: The obstruction did not materially affect the outcome. "Coach," I would have said, "tell your first baseman to get out of the way." Put like that, the second obstruction might not have occurred. But if it did and the skipper started out to complain, I would simply say: "I already warned you about that. My call comes as no surprise."
Likewise for Play 42: We ignore catcher's interference if the batter and all runners make a base. R2 went to third and B1 to first on the single. "Coach, tell your catcher not to reach for the ball."
Explaining to the coaches that a penalty is being ignored is called preventive officiating. It takes just a moment to explain the no-call and avoids wasting several minutes later defending the penalty.
You may read comments from "experts" on the internet who argue it's not your place to explain the no-call.
They're wrong.
Carl Childress is the Editor-in-Chief of Officiating.com. He's been writing professionally about amateur "hardball" umpiring for thirty years. RightSports, Inc., publishes each year his unique Baseball Rule Differences, known as the BRD. He's also the Umpire-in-Chief for the American Legion in his area as well as being the TASO secretary and rules interpreter. Click here to read a short biography. You may reach Carl at carlchildress@officiating.com.
