[rwest]

Originally Posted by referee99

Mens ASA Slowpitch.

One out in final inning, team at bat trails by one run.
Playing on a turf field with no dirt infield.
R1 on 2nd, R2 on 1st. I'm PU.
Batter hits towering pop up to F6 who is playing deep on the turf field.
I may have taken a shade longer than normal to call (making sure it was IF), but yell "Infield Fly!" (I have a loud voice) soon after it reaches its apex.

F6 has glove up, ball contacts the glove and pops right back out -- squirts out, much like if you had a watermelon seed in your fingers and you squeezed em.

Runners F1 and F2 start running, throw to 2nd and tag is applied for final out.

Players on team at bat start with excuses, "no tag at 2nd" (there was), "no call of IF" (like I said, loud voice), but my partner and I make our way off the field, and that is the ballgame.

When we are off the field, I suggest to my partner (2nd year official, I'm 3rd year) "any chance he dropped that on purpose?" She replies, "oh yeah, definitely he dropped it on purpose." I asked why she wouldn't call dead ball if she thought that. She said she thought intentional drop didn't apply on IF, that that was sort of the whole point of IF.

Here (finally) are my questions:

Can one use the concept of "he's too good a player not to make that catch so it had to be intentional"? I mean this drop was not a bad acting job. No fumbling, or belated opening of glove to drop it. But the guy making the play was a really good player who would not miss the ball in that sitch.
Applaud job well done, or rule intentional?

At game's end my first reaction was to get off the field and terminate the game. In retrospect, should I have gotten with my partner ON FIELD and dotted our i's and crossed t's? Make sure we had tag at 2nd, and ensure no intentional drop. (Nobody on the batting team was saying anything about intentional drop -- I don't think there was any awareness of that rule)

IF takes precedence over intentionally dropped ball. The offense is required to know the rules too. If they chose to advance on a dropped IF that's their mistake. 3 outs; go home. Now, suppose you had not called IF and F6 unintentionally dropped the ball and then the runners advanced and were tagged out. What should you do then? IF can be enforced after the fact. If you realized you blew it and should have called it, then enforce the IF. The batter is out. What about the other runners? Since my failure to call IF put them in jeopardy and we had to reverse my call (or in this case, lack of a call) using rule 10.3, I'd put the runners back at 1st and 2nd.