Ball Four, in the dirt

[David Emerling]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Not possible.

MLB is different from LL.

What I mean by "caught cleanly" is that it doesn't ricochet away. It just skips into the dirt and is caught. It's not a loose ball. Actually, even that is irrelevant. Even if the ball skips away from the catcher a few inches, I've seen they change baseballs before the batter is even halfway down the line.

I would think you would have to wait to change baseballs once the batter reaches 1st and is clearly making no attempt to advance. It's sort of analogous as to when a batter walks and the defensive manager wants to call time immediately to talk to his pitcher. He has to WAIT until the BR reaches first - then he can have time.