Quote:
Originally Posted by Dom Heffner
No. Waiting means it isn't apparent. I have to wait and see if it's obvious? That makes no sense.
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Seriously, take it up with the rules committee, major league baseball and all the instructional camps that have been teaching umpires to apply the rule in that form since its inception.
Unless you think I'm a liar, I don't know why you're being so aggressive with me. I'm just telling you that is how it's enforced.
It does NOT have to be apparent that an ordinary effort can be given right away. It doesn't have to be apparent halfway through the play. It can be apparent right up at the very last second and still be considered ordinary if the fielder never had to give extraordinary effort.
You still haven't explained how it wasn't ordinary when the fielder never had to sprint to get to the ball. He was back pedaling the entire time and never had to turn his back into an all out sprint. Some would say that's ordinary.
And even if you wouldn't, the threshold is not whether it should have been apparent immediately. He only has to call it when, in his judgment, it does become apparent.
That is the rule. I'm 1,000 percent confident on that. That's how I was taught it, how I practiced it during drills and how I enforced it during legion games. That's how I learned it from former minor league umpires that taught me. That's how I read it in manuals and case books.
If you think I'm lying, fine. But unless you think I'm lying, I'm telling you flat out how it's taught and how the rule is applied. Eliminate all your preconceived notions of what you think it should be. Because they're leading you down the wrong path on this.