[DownTownTonyBrown]

Infield Fly situation. Score is relatively close - a point or two. Bottom of the 5th. One team is really quite dominant but hasn't shown their stuff yet.

Bases loaded. No outs. Ball is hit moderatly high behind F4. She takes a step in and then begins to back up. F8 rushes in. I yell "Infield Fly. Batter is out." F4 can't get there. F8 can't get there. Ball falls between them about one and a half feet into the grass. The two fielders are about 10 feet apart and about run into each other.

Runners advance. Score one. Coach says "You're kidding right? It landed in the outfield." "No I'm not kidding; the batter is out."

"The ball was hit to a location that an infielder can cover. IFR is the correct rule."

I would like to have not made the call. Nobody would have cared. The coach was sending his girls anyway ... and not because the IFR call had not been made but because he felt it was not going to be caught. And it wasn't caught.

Obviously the coach didn't like the call because everyone advanced except his batter. I didn't really like the call because the defense didn't get there from their intial position and after the initial F4 stumble.

I had this discussion to a very great depth last year on the baseball forum. The concensus of some very well known and some other very knowledgeable officials was that the initial position of the fielders didn't really matter, how hard the wind was blowing, which direction the sun was coming from, what day of the week it was, a one legged F4, or a very athletic F4, chewing gum, blonde or brunette, were unimportant pieces of information. Their opinion was that it only mattered where the ball came down. "DID THE BALL COME DOWN IN A LOCATION THAT AN AVERAGE INFIELDER COULD COVER?"

This hit met that requirement. F4 should have been able to make that catch. Whether she started too far in, or took a step in the wrong direction, was inconsequential. An alert F4 should have made that catch. In field fly; batter is out.

What say you?

Ooooh by the way. The complaining team went on to score 8 to 10 runs that inning and win by the 10 run rule. Dominance shown!