Lance Barksdale's Teachable Moment About Getting Set on Force Plays

In this Teachable Moment, tmac spotlights 2B Umpire Lance Barksdale taking a force play at second where the question of Pirates second baseman Tucupita Marcano's potential pulled foot ahead of Cardinals runner Brendan Donovan comes into play, confirmed via Replay.

[mrmoose]

The conviction of the call helps here also. Even if he was overturned, at least his conviction made him seem confident and at least he did what he thought was right.

[richardcarlson]

Props to the runner (Donovan) for the situational awareness to get back on the base due to the possible safe call.

[kinkaid]

Great call and helluva play by the fielder,

[EType]

As Tmac says, the mechanic of getting set for force plays applies on any size crew. I would add, if you are working 2-man or 3-man where the base umpires have to move more to make different calls, we stress angle over distance. We get on the proper angle, then we close on the play and then...we lock down as Barksdale does here, too. No matter where we are making a call, we have much more credibility when we are locked in and still. If we are moving, especially on a close play, we might miss something.

[douglassepic]

Pittsburgh Pirates - the new best team in baseball.

[plateump]

It looks like they are wearing Plate Coats also in the infield now. 😂

[zach]

I love this guy commenting on the vid better than the girl

[tedgey]

I still fall back into a bad habit of continuing to shuffle towards the call working two man. I know it's a mistake and I'm better than I used to be because now I kick myself every time I do it. Get set. See the play. Take a breath. Make the call