Imperial, Missouri: As soon as the ball was hit, Seckman (Imperial, Mo.) High School softball coach Steve Bonastia knew his team had just given up a tie-breaking two-run home run.
And he knew that with the game being in the fifth inning, there wasn’t much time left and his team was likely in line for a loss. What he didn’t know, though, was that the umpires – all of them – had seen the ball differently and ruled that the ball bounced over the fence. ...
See the whole story here, courtesy of The Good In Sports.
Kicking Back Comments: This story touched me on several levels. First was the fact that a coach was willing to truly correct an error that was made by a referee ... and I don't mean the type that we usually face from a coach, without regard to the actual decision, advocates for their team ... as they should.
This was the story of a team of referees who made a mistake, and a coach, to his and his teams detriment, offered a correction.
Now I say offered here, as the refereeing crew was certainly under no obligation to accept the information. Which lead me to the second touch point ... they did.
How willing are we are referees to overturn a decision to "get it right?" Are we even willing to do that? Some are not and don't even consider it at all. Some may be too easy and at the slightest bit of resistance, reverse a decision.
What about the magnitude of the play ... a lot of time is spent on incidents that result in scoring, which is the whole reason we are using GLT now. But what about the other decision that lead up to it? The penalty that was not given, the ineligible substitution that was made, a foul at midfield that prevented an attack from developing?
Where is the line that we should accept, and act on, such advise?
My friends, it is a slippery slope, and can come down to one word ... fingerspitzengefühl.
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