Quote:
Originally posted by Dakota
It seems that the "everybody knows" definition of "about to receive" varys anywhere from "being ready to make a play in case the fielder throws it in time" to "ball in flight."
As I said above, for most practical purposes, there is no difference between "about to receive" as ASA has defined it and "has possession." (A couple of exceptions noted in the posts above.)
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I believe the difference you note above(ball in flight) is derived from baseball where collisions are often an accepted part of the game as opposed to softball where they are not.
I feel the "about to receive" was meant to allow the defender to still play the game while also offering some protection to both players involved.
Just as we do not expect a runner to instantaneously vanish into thin are the moment they are forced at a preceding base, you cannot expect the defender to do the same when a good throw which beats the runner takes a bad hop or scoots away from the defender.
You're correct that a change to possession will make it easier to explain to the coaches, but OTOH, if the coaches did their job properly, us umpires wouldn't have to be
so often.
I can live with it either way.