he umpire did what?

Yeah, you read the teaser right. This all started when the umpire banged out a runner. The ump had position, he saw the tag, he sold the call. He did everything right.

Almost.

The only gnat in the ointment was that the ball was on the ground. That — as you can imagine and will see — led to a few "problems."

The scene of the crime

It was a lovely evening in this part of Canada. The skies were clear, temperatures above freezing, and we had double our usual attendance. On this night, we had a three-person crew . Through the first 30 minutes or so, things were routine.

That was about to change. It was the bottom of the second with a runner on first. The umpire on first, whom we'll call Bill (names have been changed), described the play this way in an email I'll always keep:

Continued...