Trapped Ball
 

:D FED: R1, R2, 2 outs, 3-2 on B5:
B5 swings at the pitch and F2 scoops the ball and dirt goes flighting everywhere. B5 takes off for 1st and F2 starts looking everywhere for the ball and can’t find it. Everyone is running and then F2 shows me his glove with the ball stuck in his webbing. I ruled “trapped ball 8-3-3-(d)”.

F2 tries to tell me he caught it and the DC tries to back him up. I award one base to everyone and ask for the next batter.

The DC wants to argue and I state "Coach, your catcher has to show he has the ball and has control. He couldn't do either one when the batter took off for first." I ruled a trapped ball because it stuck in his webbing. Lets play.

if the ball was stuck in his webbing...wouldn't that mean that he caught it...or after the ball went in the dirt, then it lodged?? I would caution you making a lodged ball call when in your post, you state that the ball is lodged in the player's glove

Just because the ball is in the glove doesn't mean he caught it, If it went in the dirt, then into the glove, still a D3K.

If the ball was stuck in his webbing, why didn't he pull the ball out? Why did he show you the baseball? You said F2 tried to tell you he caught it, so if he was showing you the ball to say he caught it, he should have been able to pull the ball out. Was the ball lodged so bad as to require extra effort to remove it?

Either way, it was an uncaught third strike. That is the ruling on the field. If you needed to kill the ball for a lodged ball, then that would be the right call.

You didn't really say "trapped ball 8-3-3d" when you made the call, did you? The way you wrote it makes it sound that way.:)

Seriously, you don't yell out the appropriate sections of the rule book as you make your calls, Steve?

Bob,

I'm sure that, like me, Steve only does so when he's prepared to "back it up" by also citing the appropriate case play references.

Charlie,

That's quite a call. A couple of questions that I'm not clear on from your post:

1. Did the catcher catch the pitch in flight?

2. Was the catcher able to remove the ball from his mitt? Or did you make your call before determing that?

JM

P.S. Do you have many ejections in your games?

I'm still looking for the term 'trapped' ball myself :D

Let me say it like Pesci in My Cousin Vinny

I didn't say I did, I said it sounds like he did: He said, "I ruled 'trapped ball 8-3-3-(d)'."

It kind of reminded me of Gomer yelling "citizens arrest, citizens arrest" to Barney Fife.:D

You just made it sound so 'friggin unusual'....LOL

Oh, I get it now. You two "Yutes" are being funny. HA!

I only quoted the rule here, not on the field. A long time ago when I went to umpire training I was taught to never quote the rule but to say things like "he balked when he did not complete his movement" or "he has to gain ground". What I told the coach was that the catcher did not have ball control and that it was "trapped, therefore the trapped rule applied".

Charlie,

Forgive me for being dense, but WTF is "the trapped rule"?

Also, I'm still not clear on the answers to the 2 questions I asked in my previous post on this thread. Could you enlighten?

JM

....is Trapper John MacIntyre involved?

I'm equally confused (huh?)!! I thought the ball was 'trapped' against things like the ground, a fence, in an armpit, but NOT in a glove. I thought that is what those darn things were designed to do, no?

I guess I'm also a bit dense, as 8-3-3-d states(paraphrase) -1 base awarded if "lodged in umpires or catchers equipment".
Now guys, I take that to mean mask, chest protector, uni, ect, but not IN THE GLOVE.
The OP said F2 was looking everywhere for the ball and couldnt find it. I believe the PU made the "trapped?" call for that reason alone--would you have called it if catcher wasnt looking around?- I bet not.
So, the issue isnt whether it was trapped or not, but that F2 didnt know he had caught it.
I.E., Grounder to F6, throw to F3 in the dirt beats BR, F3 catches it but thinks it bounced off glove or got by him, he jumps up looking around-What do you call? Out on the example, OOO on the sich!