+1

I had this one in Boys JV game the other day. Team A shoots a 3, long rebound at an angle toward the table. B1 grabs the ball with one hand and tries to baseball pass down court. The ball slips out of his hand on the follow through and goes about 10 feet in the air and forward about 4-5 feet, he takes a couple of steps and catches the ball. The player then proceeded to pass the ball. A's coach wanted traveling. I had a no-call. It was one of those "funny looking" plays. Did I blow it?

By rule, a player is always able to recover a fumble which is what this sounds like to me. Good no call.

I told the coach that I considered it a fumble. He politely disagreed, saying the player had control and basically "passed to himself" although not intentionally.

Judgment call. Was it a fumble, or did he throw the ball, but it just happened to be off target. This could be a travel. 4.44.3 D

Well, I considered it a fumble because he was trying to pass it about 60 feet downcourt to a teammate and it slipped out and ended up only going about 5 feet. He just happened to not have anyone else around and moved forward and caught the ball.

Reference for FED??

Well by rule, a fumble is accidental loss of player control.

We can't have a travel since a player isn't holding the ball. We can't have an illegal dribble because a dribble is movement of the ball caused by a player in control who bats (intentionally strikes the ball with the hand(s)) or pushes the ball to the floor...and we've already established that a fumble is accidental loss of player control.

Thus, a player can always retrieve a fumble. Now we get paid the big bucks (excluding a certain state) to determine what is and isn't a fumble.

NFHS case book play 4.15.4SitD(d)

This Case discusses dribbling. This situation was during an attempt at a pass. Would it still apply??

If you deemed the play a fumble, it would apply. And you have already stated in your post #36 above that it was a fumble and not a pass.The concept applies to all fumbles. As APG said, a player can always legally recover a fumble.