Infield Fly Fiasco

[Jim Porter]

Some Pro schools, like Jim Evans Academy, teach their umpires about making sure a fielder is "comfortably set" under the ball before calling an infield fly. Too many umpires take such advice too much to heart.

What they're really teaching you is a way to decide on infield flies that are out over the outfield grass. I do not believe they're talking about infield flies that are clearly over the infield.

Any pop-up that reaches an "appreciable height," as I believe Papa C called it, and which is clearly over the infield, can be easily caught with ordinary effort by more than one infielder! We do not need to wait for an infielder to become comfortably set under such a pop-fly in order to invoke the infield fly rule. To do otherwise is to invite misery and chaos upon your game.

Don't let that crap ruin a perfectly good game of baseball. It's really that simple.