2 intentional walks in a row...

Question
QUESTION: Hi sir.  I'm an ASA certified ump, and LOVE just browsing your answers as a refresher for a lot of situations, and how to handle them.  I'm also a player, and this past weekend in our State Mens Slowpitch ASA Tourney in SD (we won D2 by the way), we had a situation come up that I can't quite find the right answer for:

In a tie ball game in the bottom of the 7th, with 1 out and R1 on 3rd...the defense declares they want Intentional Walks issued to our next two batters.  On the way to first, R2 asks the ump, "do I just go to 2nd since they're walking B3?" to which the ump responds, "yes".  He proceeds to cut across the diamond to 2nd without touching first base.  So, R1, R2 and R3 occupy 1st 2nd and 3rd, and B4 just needs to hit a sac fly with 1 out to win the game.  During the pitch,  the 1B umpire yells "time!" as the first basemen apparently called for an appeal.

When the umpires got together, it was decided that R2 was out for not touching 1st, and there were 2 outs.

My question is, since an appeal has to be made before the next pitch, doesn't the 2nd intentional walk constitute the next pitch, therefore making it impossible to appeal R2 touching 1st?

2nd part is, isn't it good preventative officiating to tell the Runner he should touch first after he asks him if he should just go to 2nd?

Thanks so much!
J-bird
Manager: Team PokerStars(Sioux Falls, SD)
and
Certified ASA Umpire

ANSWER: Hi J-b,

My first reaction is WOW, this happened in an ASA state tournie.

Both the offense AND the umpire(s) are at fault here....95% the umpires in my opinion.

The player should know that they have to run the bases in regular order.  So they shouldn't even have to ask that question.  But if asked tell him he must run the bases in regular order... as in touch 1st...Einstein.

The PU should not allow the intentional walk of B2 until B1 has reached 1st base.  rs32 and 8-1-c3

8-1-c3 "if the umpire mistakenly allows 2 walks at one time and the first batter fails to touch 1st base, an appeal shall not be honored on the 1st batter"

rs 32 "when an intentional walk is issued it is considered the same as throwing a pitch.  No appeal of the previous play will be allowed

If I read your scenario correctly I have the following....

Both or all 3 of these umpires are going to be in my doghouse for getting the call wrong, this is basic umpiring starting with the way the walks were handled all the way to the bad out call after getting together.  The PU is going to get most of my "discussion" but the umpire who stated he could go directly to 2nd is also going to go home unhappy.  If it was the same umpire...well....!  Even if the 1st BU wasn't the one who said it, he was the one talking with the PU and had a chance to get the call correct, I'm not going to kill the 3rd base umpire (if there was one) if he wasn't involved except for not stepping in to get the call correct, he would just have a learning experience and yes IMO an uninvolved umpire should step in on a rules question if another umpire gets it wrong and get another conference together w/ all the umpires to get it right.

The offense must have gone crazy and protested.  What did the UIC say?  Did he reverse the call?



Mark

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I am the manager of the 'offense', and my players were going crazy.  I was concerned with getting them settled down and not getting them thrown out.  After everything settled down, I told the PU that I wanted to protest, but we ended up winning the game anyway so nothing materialized.  The UIC of the tourney WAS the PU as far as I could tell.  After the game, he told me...not to worry about it...'cuz they got the call right anyway, so it would've just been a waste of $20'.

Answer
Hi J-b

Boy your state is much different than mine in ASA championship play, you did say this was an ASA state championship.

In MI the tournie UIC never umpires on the field, his(her) job is to teach, supervise, evaluate and schedule the umpires and along w/ the TD settle protests (which the TD leaves mostly to us)

Also we never have a "fee" for a protest.  If a protest is made it is settled before the next pitch by the TD, UIC and whatever committee we want to bring on the field.  In the few I've had I mostly settle it by myself.

I find it real hard to believe that an ASA state tournie UIC would get this call wrong, along w/ the other problems I mentioned re mechanics, again this is basic umpiring. If I were you I'd print this entire discussion out and send it to the state uic and ask their opinion of the way it was handled.  If you're not happy there I go next to the regional UIC

mark