Quote:
Originally posted by GarthB
Alas and alack, an opportunity missed.
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It looks to be significantly worse than missed... more like blatantly ignored.
Defense does their job. Stops the ball. But for some unpredictable, anomalous reason the ball becomes stuck/"lodged" in the defender's glove. This means the offense has done a tremendous job of hitting and instead of a sure out (even with an underhand toss of glove and "lodged" ball) the batter-runner is awarded two bases.
And a dynamic, sudden turn of the pitcher's shoulders, is acceptable!! That's not a balk.
I thought new rules basically came from coaches. It seems unconceivable that these coaches would have such a paucity of game understanding. Unbelievable.
One of our past main points of discussion was when exactly does the "lodged" ball become dead. 5.1.1q ("dead immediately when it becomes lodged") and 5.1.1r ("When F1 tosses his fielding glove... it became apparent that the ball was lodged and the ball becomes dead and the award is made.") seems to still leave this question unanswered. So is the ball dead when it becomes lodged or is it dead when the umpire recognises that the ball is lodged; much can go on between when the ball enters a glove and the second and a half later when the glove is removed and tossed.
I'm thinking they may have created some nightmares for us.