Infield Fly in Wild Card Game

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by D Ray

For those that feel this should not have been called, I wonder what standard you use in your games to determine "ordinary effort". In my neck of the woods, if the infielder turns his back to the plate, he is demonstrating EXTRA-ORDINARY effort to make a play. F6 never turned his back. From my arm chair, I feel he would have made the catch had he not bailed. It appears these are the fact used be the umpires on the scene.

The rule calls for the catch to be accomplished with ordinary effort. While the effort an infielder expends to get into position is a contributing factor, it shouldn't be the deciding factor. An infielder could turn his back and sprint 10-20 feet to get settled under the ball, and then make a routine catch.

So I wouldn't necessarily support your standard. Just watch the infielder get into position, and then judge if the catch is one that he can turn into a possibly easy DP if he let it drop.