I had a situation in a national fast pitch tournament that had a bit of this same taste to it. A1 at second A2 at first one out. Batter hits fly ball that is going to land just in front of second base. I am third base umpire and am patiently waiting for the call from the plate umpire. We had already communicated that the infield fly situation was in effect. The first base umpire was in the B slot and nothing comes from either umpire. At the last minute I raise my fist and call infield fly. The play continued on because not everyone heard the call from an unusual spot and the shortstop picked up the ball uncaught and tossed it to her second baseman who touched the runner on second base then touched second base for the third out. Everyone from the defence was all happy and everyone from the offence was going crazy about the call not being made. Little did they know that the third base coach the thirdbaseman and I all knew what was happening. These were womans A players and they all knew the game very well. The shortstop made the play look like she could not handle the catch with ordenary effort and in turn made others believe this. Although she turned the double play with the easiest of effort. After the dust cleared and both coaches were on the field we got it all cleared up, that it was not only the plate umpires call and the intent of the rule was to keep from happening what did happen. Both coaches were satisfied and we played on with runners on first and second and two outs. The next batter hit a single and scored the winning run from second. Oh I forgot to mention that this was the bottom of the 13th and we were tied 1 to 1.
[Edited by Ed Maeder on Apr 11th, 2004 at 03:59 PM]
|