Infield fly rule
 

I wanted to follow up regarding an infield fly rule situation we encountered. We had less than two outs, with runners on first and second. I called the infield fly rule but hesitated briefly to ensure the ball was hit high enough.

As I made the call, the first baseman noticed the ball was going to fall short. Neither the catcher nor the pitcher moved for the ball. Instead, the first baseman ran in, dove, and successfully caught it.

In your opinion, would this situation still qualify as an infield fly rule? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this unusual play.

Could it of been caught with normal effort at at any point?.

Pitcher could’ve probably caught it with normal effort

That is what matters, regardless of who did.

Recently, two IFR situations occurred in games.
1) the batter hit a "bloop" to the pitcher
2) with the infielders playing in, a fly ball was hit to behind F4, who had to half turn and back pedal about 20+ feet, and missed it. The coach wanted it to be an out because it was still "in the infield". I ruled and my partner agreed, not ordinary effort.

Rulings, please?

I probably would not have called IF in either case.

Not sure it happened in the second scenario, but I've used the method that if I see the player's jersey number while she's tracking the ball it probably is not "ordinary effort".

If the pitcher catches the ball, then it doesn't matter. If not, then do the runners have time to think about stopping?

Whether it is baseball or softball, the problem is that we tend to call IFF too soon. Like in basketball when it is sometimes better to have a patient whistle, it is better to be patient in calling IFF. Waiting for the Ball has started to come down gives us the needed extra information as to whether or not it is an IFF.

MTD, Sr.

True, especially applicable to my 2 examples