Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Ives
And then everyone really needs to know and know now if it's fair or foul because it governs ensuing action.
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I think the
most important thing that governs ensuing action is whether it is caught or not.
If the ball
is caught - it makes no difference whether it was caught in fair or foul territory. Runners can tag up without any concern about the fair/foul status of the ball. If the ball was on the fair side and was a marginal "catch" requiring an umpire ruling - the runner will
primarily want to know if it was caught or not. Because, if it was on the foul side and ruled a no-catch, it really doesn't matter.
If the ball was
not caught, once the runners see the no-catch ruling they can assume that it was fair and immediately respond appropriately - if it subsequently turns out to be foul - no harm.
I don't know, it just seems backwards to me.
I'm thinking the reason they encourage umpires to call it in this manner is so they focus on the fair/foul status of the ball; because, if they focus too much on whether it's a catch or not, they will fail to notice
where the ball was first touched. That's great for the umpire - doesn't work so well for the runners.