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Old Tue Jul 17, 2001, 02:25pm
Patrick Szalapski Patrick Szalapski is offline
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1) You got it. I knew you would; this one's the whole point of the other posts above.

2) Gotcha there! Reread the infield fly rule again. You'll see that where it first lands DOES NOT DETERMINE whether it is fair or foul. In fact, fair/foul in this case is NO DIFFERENT than fair or foul in any other case.

The correct call for the umpire is, while the ball is in the air, "Infield fly, if fair!" Once the ball rolls foul and is touch by the catcher there (as above), it is a FOUL BALL, by the definition of foul ball (OBR 2.00)--this really has nothing to do with the infield fly. A foul is a foul. The ball is dead, the batter is not out, the runners can not advance, etc...

3) This one was easy and you got it correct.

4) Now your question. The answer is, a mess!

Bases loaded, one out. Fly ball to second baseman, umpire calls "Infield fly!" However, the ball is traveling a little deeper than initially thought; the fielder never quite gets settled and misses the catch rather awkwardly. RULING: Eat the call. The umpire made his judgment that the ball was "catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort." Maybe it was somewhat bad judgement, but we should live with it.

Bases loaded, one out. Fly ball to second baseman, umpire calls "Infield fly!" However, the ball is traveling much, much deeper than initially thought; the ball lands between the outfielders--not in front of them. RULING: As soon as the umpire realizes his mistake, he should yell out "Batter's alive! Batter's alive!" to correct his call. This case is similar to that in which the umpire calls "out" on a tag and then sees the ball lying on the ground. It would be a travesty of the game not to correct this call.

What do you do if the ball is somewhere in between there? That's why we get paid the big bucks--you decide whether to correct you call or eat it. Of course, a good umpire will not make these mistakes in the first place. To avoid them, don't be afraid to wait a little while on your infield fly calls.

P-Sz
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