Dangerous, Deadly Dangerous

[cbfoulds]

Originally posted by mcrowder
Awful.

Now couple it with this:

SITUATION 7: B1 hits a sharp ground ball to F1, who gloves the ball from the mound. As B1 nears first base, F1 has trouble pulling the ball from the webbing of his glove. B1 touches first base and F1 is able to eventually pull the ball from his glove. RULING: The play stands. This is not a lodged ball as the pitcher was able to extract the ball from his glove. Since he did not toss his glove with the ball lodged in it to F3, the ball stays live, the play stands, and there is no award of bases. (2-9-1)

So, if I'm reading these right, in sitch 7, we must actually wait to see if F1 can remove the ball from his glove. If he can't, we're back to sitch 6.

What if he calls time, with the ball still in his glove? How do we know whether it was lodged or not? Are they trying to say that it's only lodged if the equipment comes off?

Awful, just awful.

Well, I agree that the ruling(s) are awful.
Still, I think the key in #7 is "eventually". I cannot imagine a sitch in which the ball cannot be extracted "eventually" without removing the glove, which is what has the FED rules guys in a flutter.
So, yeah, the short answer to "how do we know if it's lodged" is: "did he take off the glove?"

We have several "awful" case book plays this year. My fav is the caught-foul mechanics error do-over. Nobody but umpires is gonna get excited about the two plays where the lodged-ball/glove sitch happens. Somebody somewhere in Fedland is going to need an armed escort to the car for indicating "Foul" before the ball is caught in foul territory.