[MD Longhorn]

I find it ironic that one person is smacked down for hurrying out to check out a live ball in the outfield when the fielder puts his hands up, and another is smacked down for saying that if the fielder is playing it, it's live. Can't really smack down both of these, can we?

Personally, if a fielder throws up his hands and I cannot determine the ball's status from where I already am, I'm going out. The whole reason we go out is to make an accurate ruling on something we could not rule accurately on from the infield --- so it is completely consistent with that to go immediately check it out when this happens. It may very well be that one poster was correct that 99/100 of these will indeed be ruled blocked/stuck/dead/whatever. But I see no purpose in waiting to go out, whether it's the 99 of 100 or the 1 of 100.

I also agree that if the player is playing it, I'm assuming it's playable - and sticking with my "normal" responsibilities. I actually find it rather bizarre that Rich had a problem with that... are you suggesting that you would head out to the outfield to check it out even if the outfielder is playing the ball? Seems odd.