Worst calls

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I need to vent a minute. Soooo we were down south playing this week and had the worst call I have ever seen in my life. We were playing defense and the other team had a girl running from 2 to 3 and she over ran the bag. Our 3rd baseman tagged her (she was on bag runner was NOT). The runner was 2 to 3 feet off the bag in foul territory when she tagged her. Field ump was straight behind 3rd baseman. Called runner safe. REFUSED to ask for help from the plate ump. How ignorant is that?

(Even the other coaches after the game-admitted she was out and way off the bag.)

Of course it was a game changing play.

 

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Vent away. Sounds like the coaches agreed that the call was blown.

My only caveat to "vent away" is your statement "Of course it was a game changing play". Don't get me wrong, if I were a parent I'd be saying the same thing. But as a coach, I would want to communicate to my players that, while we got the raw end of a bad call, we could have done things before that play or things after that play to win. I would especially focus with the team on the "after that play" piece. One of the traits of really really good ball players is to put the fact of a bad call behind them by committing to beat the opposing team and, if necessary, the umpires despite the bad calls. If the players give it their aggressive all and the bad call still appears to have been the game-deciding event, then the coach can give the players his or her opinion on that AFTER the game is over. But before the game is over, those who call themselves really good players need to the develop the skill of staying up and aggressive, so that the blown call doesn't automatically become a "game changer".

 

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I think it was in a game in the Florida vs Alabama series this weekend... batter/runner overruns first base and makes a move towards second - but changes her mind when she realizes she can't make it and gets tagged out. The problem was - the announcer stated "she turned the wrong way".

This is where rules get screwed up and misinterpreted. Which direction she turns has NOTHING to do with it! The fact that she made a move towards second base is what got her in trouble. She could have turned to her RIGHT and STILL made a move towards second - with the same result. OR, she could have turned to her left after overrunning the bag and came straight back to the bag - and been safe.

 

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You are correct, Sammy. It's all about "intent". I think the "turning the wrong way" has roots in Rec Ball, and some people have never bothered to upgrade their rules knowledge.

 

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@CGS - I agree coaches and players need to focus on "control the things that you can control" and not let other things like bad calls and/or the other team's behavior distract you from playing your game.

 

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Agreed. Our girls did put it out of their heads until it came down to that one run...that could have given us an extra inning. We were down and made a tremendous comeback but not quite soon enough. But had we had that out...she wouldn't have been on to score...so in the end that one run did matter. Even though several plays and such mattered also. Just frustrating when he refused to ask for help and it could have been called an out. Oh well not the end of the world.