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Tuesday, May 15, 2007


Gump Loses on a Lie 

9-8.

The worst part was how they won. In one of the middle innings, I came up to bat second with one out. I connect solidly and the ball flies hard and fast to right field, over the right center fielder's head. I round second and pull into third standing easily. A few moments pass, our next batter steps up to the plate. Then their first basewoman begins to complain. "But, he didn't touch first base!" The ump asks her if she's officially appealing, she says yes, and then he calls me out. "Bull*$&#!" I yell. I touched every bag! He said, "Sorry, she appealed," like that for some reason settled it. So I was out. Now, I never argue with umps because I don't feel like I know enough about the intricate rules of the game to really argue strongly, but this time, it was different. When we took the field, I trotted over to him and really let him know exactly what I thought of that call. He asked me if I wanted to appeal the appeal. I said, "I'm not taking it to court here buddy, but you know and I know that (a) I touched every bag and (b) you weren't even looking. You were watching the outfield like everyone else. How bout a bull*$&# call on them this inning!" He said to me I could appeal it at any time. I told him that I'd settle for him watching the game with two eyes.

The next time I came up to bat I got a single and when I got to first base I jumped on it, just to emphasize the point (a bit of an athletic temper-tantrum, I know...). Their first basewoman remarked snidely, "Careful, you'll break your ankle doing that." I looked at her and said angrily, "I don't break my own ankles." (Sorry, Ashley...)

So, in the last inning, the game would at least have been tied, if not ended in a Gump victory, but as it stood, we lost on a lie, to the team with the worst record. If that's how they want to win, that's their business. I at least slept with a clean conscience.

-R

4 Comments:

I don't do baseball/softball for a variety of reasons, one of them being the general weirdness of the rules. However, in this instance, football and baseball overlap.

Just because the player appealed the call doesn't mean that she was correct. The ump was correct to hear the appeal, but if he didn't actually see you miss the bag, then he didn't actually see you step on the bag; and since the assumption is that baserunners step on the bag, his answer should have been, "I didn't see him miss the bag, he's safe."

Sort of like a catch in football. Unless I see the ball hit the ground, the assumption is that a catch was made.

And life goes on . . .

By Blogger Reverend Ref +, at 5:58 PM  


Ref+ beat me to it.

If the umipre didn't see the miss, then he shouldn't call the out. And if he does see the miss, then he doesn't call the out until it is properly appealed - which means that either you (the runner) or the missed base is tagged, and the defense makes the appeal. Unless your rules allow appeals to be made verbally only.

And if the defense appeals, and the umpire calls the out, then there no "appealing the appeal."

And if you had had that between-inning conversation with me, you would have been watching the rest of the game from the sidelines or the parking lot.

Of course, it is not completely the umpire's fault that Gump lost. You could have scored more runs, or kept your opponents from scoring as many as they did.

I'm an umpire. Bet you couldn't tell.

By Blogger Dawgdays, at 6:44 PM  


Hahaha...good to hear from my athlete compadres! Yeah Dawgdays, I know, but sometimes good sense gets lost in the moment (like you've never seen that). I've only ever seen someone get tossed in this league for directing an "f-bomb" at an umpire. And we could have scored more runs in other innings, but we didn't, so that double turned triple sure would have helped.

-R

By Blogger Ryan, at 7:55 PM  


Grrr... I got mad just reading this...

Reminds me of the Ryan from a certain trip to Ronnie's/Lannie's...

-Sherriff

By Blogger Mark Sherriff, at 8:15 PM  


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