I woke up early this morning, 2:22am, and for some reason was thinking about this baseball scenario. I know, weird.

Back in college, I worked at a local parks and rec department. Since they were short on youth umpires, my buddy and I got called to duty. I umped some Little League age games. It was stressful.

One game I was umping behind the plate. The game was close, the innings were late, parents were getting riled up. A player laid down a sacrifice bunt in a critical situation. It was a very nice bunt, directly down the 3rd base line. There was no play that could be made by either the pitcher, catcher, or third baseman. In such a bunt, the only play is to let it roll and pray it rolls out of play and into foul territory.

As ump, I watched it roll. It went directly down the chalk (fair ball). If it curve leftward and off of the chalk line, as a bunted ball normally does, it would be foul. I expected it to do this. And, it did, barely. It came to a stop off the chalk line.

But, here's the rub. Although the ball was not physically touching the chalk, the CURVATURE of the ball was indeed over the chalk line.

I walked out closer and looked down, I couldn't believe what I saw. No, it was not touching chalk. Yes, if looking down vertically, the ball was over the chalk. "Are you serious?!" I thought.

I had to make a call. I immediately swiped left with both hands to signal "Foul ball!" and quickly picked it up to erase the evidence. Of course, half the parents were yelling at me. It didn't matter, fair or foul, half were going to yell at me anyway.

My question is, decades later, was that the right call? After all these years I still don't know and it cost me some sleep last night!