Bizarre Umping Situation/Question

Good gracious, flotg,
I went to the game - and I'm sorry that the video shows that the catcher's glove was not close to the bat when the ball was hit or that the umpire made any decision clear to the Roberson team. I'm also sorry that the catcher has told his coach and teammates that the bat did not hit the ball - I guess everyone that lives on the south side of town is probably a liar because they weren't in the batter's box or the batter. I guess I should also understand why people sitting in the press box would be able to tell even though they weren't in the batter's box? And, I guess that I now know that I should only post the link for anything I question and let everyone else choose to read even if they don't know what the link is for!
I guess I should also apologize for bringing the issue up just because I subscribe to the Asheville-Citizen Times and was concerned that the Roberson coach was bumped by the umpire and wanted to know how long he was going to be suspended and whether an umpire should not be dealt with for creating contact on the field - in actuality, I just feel fortunate that our coach did not lose his cool and bump the umpire back if he was really physically provoked by the umpire. Of course, as people have noted, the umpire must have been totally correct because he refereed SEC football about five to ten years ago!
And, yes, I did get my question answered, which I appreciated and dropped the whole thing until I got an emotional response from another poster that was halfway factual and supposedly attempted to correct the record by further attacking the Roberson coach, the assistant coach, and one of the players when, in fact, no coach, no one on the team, nor I have argued that the call made one shred of difference in the game.
I do appreciate Coach Evan's response because it answered my question - and I will agree with him on a point he made. If the umpire had not attempted to further steal the spotlight from the game by agreeing to be interviewed, none of this would have come up. Anything that Coach Suttles said would have been his word for the state to decide; however, the big problem in the article is that the ump seems to acknowledge that he "inadvertently" bumped the coach!
So...thank you for sharing your thoughts - those are mine, and in all honesty, nothing is going to change my opinion or viewpoints on the game at this point as I'm sure my thoughts won't change yours!

 

I would appreciate that we leave the names of players, parents and follow up replies by fans to the article out of this. It is obviously a painful situation and I hope the Coach was only disqualified vs ejection.

My question is an umpiring question:

Is catcher interference a dead ball or should the umpire wait until the play resolves before taking action? BigDipofCope.....help!!!

 

Catchers interference

This is technically catcher obstruction (the defense obstructs and the offense interferes) and yes it is a delayed dead ball. the umpire should signal with his left arm outstretched and then wait for the play to end at which point he will call time and talk to the offensive coach for a final decision.

 

Which is exactly what the ump did.

Like you, I was there and Youre exactly right - your comments dont change my mind ....

SO - Once again - Game over - lets move on - hopefully Coach Suttles wont be penalized and best of luck to the Rockets and TCR in the remainder of the season...

 

Thanks Stretchlon...you're the best!

 

The umpire should point at the bat and verbally say "that's interference". Yes, in high school, the umpire should hold his left hand out in a fist to signal delayed dead ball, but if the umpire actually has the wherewithall to do that in that situation or if anyone actually noticed it, I'd be exteremly surprised. After the play is over, if all runners including the batter runner have advanced safely at least one base, the interference is ignored. If one of the runners or the batter runner is put out before advancing at least one base, the coach gets an option to take the result of the play or to enforce catcher's interference (its called catcher's obstruction in the NFHS book, catcher's interference in every other rule book).

 

According to the AC-T Blog:

(Appx 3rd entry down: http://miva.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/miva?blogs+blog_id=hshuddle )