I came very near to being unable to make a call at first last night because I turned my back to the ball.
With a runner on second and one out in the bottom of the seventh, a ball is grounded sharply to the third baseman.
This is, generally, a routine play…until you inject a bunch of 14-year-olds, that is.
I honestly believed I’d learned my lessons about anticipating what the younger players will do with the baseball in what seems like routine situations. Hence, I figured the player MIGHT check the runner back to second and then go to first for the out.
In essence, that is what the kid did, but not before faking me out of my slider shorts first.
When the fielder checked the runner at second, I had stepped back with my right foot and kept my chest toward the ball. My plan was to make sure he made a throw before turning back toward first.
I’m not sure how far off second the runner had gotten, but the check at second turned into a throw.
Or, that’s what I thought.
So, I pivot around to follow the ball, thinking I was going to have a close play at second, but realize fairly quickly he didn’t release the ball.
Oh, dang.
Rather than returning to my prior position to square toward the third baseman, I end up continuing to my right to go directly toward first for a play there, which means I had my back to the ball at some point.
And, if you’ve ever done that, you probably learned fairly quickly why you don’t want to do that.
So, now I’m looking at the first baseman whose countenance doesn’t give me the impression that a throw is imminent.
Are you flipping kidding me?
So, I do a quick glance over my right shoulder in an effort to get the ball back, but all I lean from that is that the fielder had, indeed, released the ball to first.
Crap.
By the time I get my eyes back on first, I’m just in time to see the first baseman leap for the sky, attempting to pull down the errant throw.
Basically, had the third baseman uncorked a true throw, I’d have completely missed the call.
I got bailed out by an E-5, in essence.
When I mentioned it to my partner after the game, he told me he’d have had a good look at the play, should I have missed it, but wasn’t otherwise aware that I was completely crossed-up on the play.
And, to be honest, I’m not sure what I would or could have done differently other than to not have been faked out by the throw to second. It all happened in however long it takes a young teenage athlete to run 90 feet, but I can still break it down as if it all developed so slowly.
In a game where I felt I really was on-point for what few plays I had to take, it was a very irritating incident to have occur in the waning moments of the ballgame.
1 Comment
June 4, 2008 at 1:38 pm
These kids will do that to you. They make ill-advised plays and we as umpires are the ones who look bad. As a member of my site said, “Anticipating the play is good… anticipating the result of the play is bad.”
Luckily along with the raise in age comes a raise in their playing ability and baseball logic.
Also fortunately I doubt anybody other than you and your partner realized what had happened to you. That’s one of the great things about generally going unnoticed on the field. The little things you give yourself grief over, unless it results in a kicked call, go unnoticed by 99% of the people there.
Cheers,
warren