It has nothing to do with being lazy. The runner's are screwed because they don't know whether or not it will be caught. If they wait and it's dropped they're screwed. If they go and it's caught they're screwed. That's the whole reason the IFF rule exists in the first place.

Never mind

They have a guy hanging around here, and they signed Johnson before he had a chance to play his senior year. I heard about the other guy you referred to. Tyler said he's the goods.

Johnson's lefty teammate in high school was Sean Gilmartin, also a freshman, who went 12-2 for Florida State this year, and led the A.C.C. in wins. And there was a third guy on that team that had a little twinge, or that would make three D-I starters from one high school team. He wound up being a left fielder at Loyola, and is probably going to pitch this year. My son was a short reliever on that team, but with those guys around, it was a lonely job.

I can't wait until you have Johnson--he's as close to Orel Hershiser as I have ever seen. I watched him go 20-0 as a varsity starter.

on a trouble ball as it is described, the runners shouldn't be standing on the base anyway...they should at a minimum be 6 - 10 feet off of the base in case it does drop. sounds like poor base running to me

I think Dash is referring to leagues with proper coaching. I haven't run into a coach in recent memory who would have his runners sit on their bags on that fly ball.

If it looks like an infielder's going to flag it on the way out into the outfield, then the lead's longer (40-feet from first/25-30 feet from second), and if it looks like the center fielder's going to catch it sprinting in, it's shorter (25 feet from first/10-12 feet from second). And, the runners should both be reading it for a drop as well to get an early start.

PAY ATTENTION! READ THE OP! The original post said that F8 allowed it to drop. Thus it isn't a case of reading whether he can catch it or not. It means he was close enough to either catch it or allow it to drop as he saw fit. Depending on where the runners are he either catches it or allows it to drop. In either event, some runner is screwed.

Pay attention to reality. Any coach who keeps his runner so close to the bag he doesn't have a fighting chance to reach second safely shouldn't be coaching, coach.

The bottom line is there is no rule prohibiting F8 from allowing the ball to drop, or dropping the ball from his glove intentionally and getting the runner at second base on the force. Too bad, so sad, thanks for playing, come back soon, drive safely.

CALM DOWN! Read my post; I was being general!

Rich,

Assuming good baserunning, F8 hurts his team by letting the ball drop. Yes, one runner is going to be "screwed" and out on a force (probably R1), but R3 scores and the B/R is on 1st since he ran out the fly ball.

F8 makes the catch - bases loaded, two out, no runs.
F8 lets it drop - R1, R3, two out, one in.

The only way you get a DP to end the inning is with horrible loafers on the bases.

And anyone wearing horrible loafers on the basepaths shouldn't be playing to start with!

And you know what that makes them?

A lollygagger!

(Sorry, Bull Durham was on TV tonight.) :D

Still is on the left coast, but it's almost over...Nuke just called up.

I can easily envision an 8-(4 or 6)-5 double play on a shallow dropped fly ball, without loafing.