Left Early on a Caught Fly

[UmpJM]

johnny,

Good find. I'm embarrassed you beat me to it.

To me, though counterintuitive, this is really pretty simple.

From Rule 2, we have the defintion of "catch":

A CATCH is the act of a fielder in getting secure possession in his hand or glove of a ball in flight and firmly holding it; ...

From the MLBUM we have a definition of a "play", as the word is used in the context of 7.05(g):

A play or attempted play is interpreted as a legitimate effort by a defensive player who has possession of the ball to actually retire a runner. ...

Since, by definition, a play can only be made by a fielder who already has possession of the ball, and a catch can only be made by someone who doesn't have possession of the ball, a catch cannot, by definition, be a 7.05(g) play.

JM