Give to F2 or throw to F1

[midtnblu]

Putting a new ball in play after a foul out of play...

Give to F2 or throw to F1.

What do you guys do?

Is one preferred/taught over another?

[MrB]

I almost always give to F2, my reasoning is no one came to the ball park to see me throw the ball.

To my knowledge no one teaches one over the other, it is personal prefference, and IMHO no one should.

[officialtony]

I don't know if there is a " preferred " on this. I usually give the new ball to the catcher. I have found that I don't throw the ball well with my chest protector on and I don't need to give anyone a chance to laugh at me or criticize me ( I know they already have plenty of opportunities. I'll save you the trouble of posting it ). If the catcher is up the 1st or 3rd base line chasing the one that he might have caught that ended up out of play and the pitcher is standing close looking at me for the ball, I will toss it to him. Just depends on my mood.

[LMan]

Depends on where F2 is.

If he's at the backstop or other place chasing the foul, I throw a fresh one to F1, collect the foul (as applicable) from F2.

If its out of play and F2 is there next to me, I hand it to him.

[Tim C]

I threw the ball back to F1 until 1981.

Then Jerry Narron said to me: "Tee, it is our job to throw the ball to the pitcher, not yours!"

Have only handed a ball or two to the pitcher since that day.

[MrB]

Originally posted by LMan
Depends on where F2 is.

If he's at the backstop or other place chasing the foul, I throw a fresh one to F1, collect the foul (as applicable) from F2.

If its out of play and F2 is there next to me, I hand it to him.

I also think it is a good idea to not allow the catcher to chase foul balls, hand him one as soon as you can. If he is chasing a pop-up that is one thing, but a batted ball that goes back or a passed ball with no one on, I give him one when he turns around. IMO this speeds that game up, the on deck guy or a coach can get the ball, the catcher can throw the one I give him back and get the sign from the coach and we can get moving. If we wait for him to get back that is time lost with him getting back and getting the sign, and then the pitch delaying the game about 30 seconds every time he goes to get one. If in a game both catchers combine to chase down 20 of these that is 10 min added to the game time.

Any thoughts?

[Tim C]

I agree completely.

Often I hear of umpire's telling a partner "how much they hustled" during the game only to find out that THEY also run back to get that ball fouled back into the screen (what Tim McCarver would call a 'foul tip').

As soon as you feel that ball zip back get one out of the selection, hand it to the catcher and cut off F2 chase.

We can all control certain parts of the delays that occur during a game . . . this is one of them.

[O.T.Hill]

I sort of enjoyed tossing the ball out to F1 until last year, when I casually flipped the ball toward him from about 40 feet and it bounced about five feet short of him. As long as the catcher is within a firm underhand toss, I won't be throwing to F1 any longer. I felt like a total fool that day.

[David B]

Originally posted by Tim C
I agree completely.

Often I hear of umpire's telling a partner "how much they hustled" during the game only to find out that THEY also run back to get that ball fouled back into the screen (what Tim McCarver would call a 'foul tip').

As soon as you feel that ball zip back get one out of the selection, hand it to the catcher and cut off F2 chase.

We can all control certain parts of the delays that occur during a game . . . this is one of them.

good points. Anything that we can do to speed the game up is good.

On deck batters can get the balls, F2 throw back to the mound and I'm supervising.

The only time I throw it back to F1 is when F2 chases a foul ball and is looking for his mask, its a lot quicker for me to give a quick flip to F1 and we're all back in place a lot quicker.

thanks
David

[DG]

I call it the "quick draw". The bag is on my right hip. How fast can I get one out and delivered to the catcher?

[briancurtin]

i wrote about this same topic last fall. i only throw if the catcher is somewhere else, and even then i try and brush the plate off or something so that i dont need to throw the ball right away. i try to always give the catcher the ball, because i end up burying the ball into the mound or sending it into center field. BB2000s arent too easy to throw with in my experiences, but of course they arent designed to do so.

[Sal Giaco]

I'll add another point...

Never toss the ball to the catcher - I always make it a point to HAND the ball to the catcher. Why, because I don't want them to toss the ball to me. Why, because I can't catch, especially with an indiclicker and a mask in my hand.

For me, it's a respect thing as well as a rapport builder with F2. You know F2 really has a clue when he not only hands the ball instead of flips it to you, but the good ones will prop the ball up on the edge/tip of their mitt and "serve" it to you. Now that's what I call RESPECT.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you probably think I'm crazy. But sometimes, it's just the little things that people do that says a lot about their professionalism.

Another good one is when you turn to the ball boy and signal/tell him you need 3 baseballs. Then, another foul ball goes into the stands and rather than bringing out 3 balls, he now gives you 4 (to account for the foul ball). Now that's a ball boy who is paying attention or what I call, "has a clue".

Like I said, it's the "little" things

[briancurtin]

im not to the point where i can point over and ask for 3 pearls, but i do get a fair amount of balls coming in since we get rid of them once they get more than a little dinged up. if they get tossed to the catcher, a very good amount of them serve it up like you said or at least hand it to me. i dont mind catching a few when the on deck batter has one or two and we are low on balls for some reason.

i agree with you Sal, that you should hand it to the catcher. a lot of them stick their glove back and i slap one right into the pocket. some like to reach back with the bare hand, which i dont like as much, but its better than nothing.

[ozzy6900]

I almost always give the ball to F2. It's his job to handle the ball and mine to call balls & strikes.

Besides, nothing is worse than a bad throw from the PU to F2!

[2rad4u]

I throw to F1...while the catcher is grabbing the other ball. I have a good arm and always make quality throws, plus, my F2's appreciate it.