[IRISHMAFIA]

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.

Irrelevant. The IFR has nothing to do with the infield, dirt or otherwise

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.

Sounds like a great call.

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.

Even though your partner is correct, you cannot apply the IDB rule on an IF, this doesn't sound like the ball was caught to begin. For an IDB, the ball must be caught before being dropped. Simply touching the ball with the glove has no bearing on the rule.

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

At least the defense knew to apply a tag. Shame on the offense for not knowing the IFR.

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.

Get out! SP players making excuses? What's this game coming to?

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.

Your partner paid attention in the clinics.

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.

Absolutely not. Read requirements for an IDB above and in the rule book (8.2.J & RS #30)

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)

To start, unless a forfeiture or suspension, the umpire doesn't "terminate" a game, either it has been completed in accordance with the rules or not. Too many people still believe that if the umpire says or doesn't say "ballgame", that it has some bearing on the end of the game.

I assume your partner called R2 out on the tag at 2nd, so what are you going to do, run out and say, "are you sure he made the tag?" I hope not.

And as noted, the IDB was not in effect.