Infield Fly in Wild Card Game

[Steve Meyer]

Originally Posted by Carl Childress

The umpire saw this: The infielder drifted back, turned to face the infield, did the sweep (Stay away !) signal. That's when the umpire must decide.

Now, those runners are not running. The fielder was perhaps 60 feet from third base. Are you trying to say that a runner can get from second to third before a ball thrown by a professional can trevel 60 feet?

I agree if it had been high school, perhaps even college, that would probably not have been called. But this was a big league call for a big league game.

Holbrooke waited until the ball was less than a split second from hitting the ground before he called the IFF. What were the other five umpires looking at, and/or waiting for? This was the first time I've ever seen an infield fly called this deep, and I hope it is the last.