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Carl,
Take a deep breath...there will be no name calling in this post.
The question of when is a ball lodged is actually a lot more provocative than "what is the definition of is is".
Fed Example:
We have a tie game in the seventh inning and a line drive hit directly above the third baseman. He reacts by leaping high and extends his glove above his head. The ball crashes into his glove and gets lodged between the fingers. All anyone can see is the ball go in, on the fly, and the umpire signals Out. The kid brings the mitt down and struggles to pull the ball out of the now, broken webbing. He requests Time to get a new glove. The third base coach starts yelling that the ball was lodged and his batter should be on second and R2 should score - game over. But, the batter is now in the dugout. The defensive coach is asking for a definition of lodged and the umpires are beginning to understand why the attrition rate for officiating is so high.
This is not a ball lodged in a player or umpire uniform.
We need rules that make sense at this level. I am simply having trouble penalizing a defensive player for a defect beyond his control. It makes as much sense as taking away a home run when a batter breaks his bat on the pitch.
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