Regular Sunday league game. Batter hits fly ball to left center. Fielder backs up to fence watches ball go over fence. Umpire hollers ground rule double. Holds batter at 2nd base. All out fielders say ball was clearly out of park but umpire refused to change call..reason: he saw ball bounce over. Had better view than all the fielders.
Youngen, you must be leaving out some details. Probably he was a second umpire, young and fit, stationed behind second base; when the ball was hit he began sprinting toward left center faster than your outfielder; as he approached the descending ball, unfortunately a gnat landed in his eye and he perceived that the ball bounced over the fence (must have been rock hard outfields to bounce that high); and he correctly called it a ground rule double, even though the outfielders who wished it were a double and not a homer, foolishly continued to insist that it was a home run.
Is that what the rest of the story is?
omar... lol.. I think you nailed it
I understand being frustrated when an umpire makes a wrong call, but you need to remember, whether it is right or wrong, it is the way they see it, not you or anyone else. If we fired every umpire that missed a call, we would not have any umpires at all. Besides, isn't Regular League a place for you to practice on your game and for Umpires to practice on making right calls?
Right or Wrong, Umpires need to be respected. Its not an easy job!
I can relate to that incident, but our umpire was willing to change his call, because our outfielder told the truth. The batter hit the ball and from the infield view point, it looked as if the ball bounced over the fence, which was a 5ft snow fence. The plate umpire called it a ground rules double. Our outfielder, with good sportsmanship, said it was a home run, so the ump changed his call. Mistakes do happen.
I appreciate both the good sportsman outfielder and the humble umpire. May their tribe increase!
An old adage about umpires:
“Umpires arent always right but they’re never wrong”
LOL! So we asked if it bounced why didn’t fielder put arms up? No response. Won the game in spite of call with 11 run open inning. Was still a good day!
