Boston-Seattle play

[UMP25]

It was Bruce's crew on that Crede play.

Using your logic, then, a player must always use his non-glove hand to remove the ball, because if he simply brings up his mitt to show the umpire he caught it and the ball pops out, it's a no catch.

Sorry, but if I judge the fielder had secure possession "long enough" to establish a catch and brings his mitt up to show me the ball, I'm ruling a catch.

[GarthB]

The "long enough" philosophy has been around in the MLB long enough to not be considered something thought of "on the fly."

[gsf23]

Originally Posted by UMP25

It was Bruce's crew on that Crede play.

Using your logic, then, a player must always use his non-glove hand to remove the ball, because if he simply brings up his mitt to show the umpire he caught it and the ball pops out, it's a no catch.

Sorry, but if I judge the fielder had secure possession "long enough" to establish a catch and brings his mitt up to show me the ball, I'm ruling a catch.

Sounds like a HTBT call, but if mearly lifting the glove to show me the ball causes it to pop out of the glove, I'd have to question just how secure the possession really was.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by PWL

I say he got the ball on the fly for certain. Was getting up to show ball and check runner on base. However, his throwing hand was no where near his glove. I just thought in his haste to get up and make another play he lost control of the ball.

I didn't see the play in question, but as I envision it in my mind's eye, it seems the act of making the catch was over and it was the subsequent play that caused the dropped ball. So, it was a catch.

It's similar to the rule-of-thumb on the transfer at second as part of a DP -- if the ball goes straight down, it was never a catch (R1 is safe at second); if the ball goes up and out, it was a catch (R1 is out) and a drop on the transfer.

[brumey1107]

Ok... so back to the Mariner / Boston play...

IMO, Beltre had secure possession of the ball and then went and tagged Manny - either on the shoulder or the helmet. This contact with Manny, which imo caused the ball to "pop" out of his glove and thus lead to the juggling of the ball by Beltre before he finally secured it.

So even as a Mariner fan (I don't believe I just admitted that ) I disagreed with the call.

The Mariner TV announcers seemed surprised at the call to... They even mentioned that because Manny didn't slide it helped the umpire call him out.

[UMP25]

Brumey, if it happened the way you said it did, then it would not be a tag. If a fielder tags a runner and while doing so the ball pops out, it's not a tag. I didn't see the play in question, so I do not know if this is how it happened. I'm commenting only on what you described.