Dead Ball???

[scyguy]

Bob,
I can't justify why I put ball in play every half inning, I just do. The verbal "play" denotes that the inning has begun.

As far as runners, this is very seldom a problem, but if it is after a long fly foul, then you give the runner the opportunity to return to a safe area near or on the base. As a coach I always taught my boys not to worry about always retouching the base after a foul ball in order to save energy. However, I reminded them that once the ball was put in play, they needed to be prepared for a possible pickoff.