The Infield Fly Rule with an NFHS twist

[CecilOne]

Originally posted by BigUmpJohn
... snip ... NFHS Rule 2.30:
Infield fly rule is, WHEN DECLARED BY THE UMPIRE, a fair fly (not including a line drive or an attempted bunt) that can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort when runners are on first and second or all three bases are occupied and before there are two outs in the inning...

Now, NFHS Rule 7.4.1h:
A batter shall be called out when she hits an infield fly when the infield-fly rule is in effect, EVEN IF IT IS NOT CALLED.

Wha? I'm assuming they mean that the ball isn't caught. Are we supposed to call a dead ball and then call the batter out?

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but isn't part of the IF rule a judgment call? So, how can we call someone out if we didn't call for the IF rule? Help please? [/B]

You might remember that I frequently note the irony of poor quality editing by an educational organization.

The quote above of " WHEN DECLARED BY THE UMPIRE" really means "IN THE CASES WHEN IT IS DECLARED BY THE UMPIRE", i.e., not by the players, coaches, fans or Tim McCarver.

As said earlier, NFHS Rule 7.4.1h and the ASA case are there to say that the declaration by the umpire can be "late", i.e., even after the "play" ends. If the batter is out for IF, no need to call dead ball to call the out (no matter how late), but a good idea to call time to prevent other playing activity while you are announcing (and argueing) it. As rule additions, the wording was not synchronized and so we have these confusions.

The only judgement is the ordinariness of the effort needed.