Infield fly vs. an intentionally dropped ball

[greymule]

I usually do ASA games, but every once in a while I am asked to do an NSA tournament. There are several key rule differences, but I was not aware of this one. The "lets drop" clause is not present in any other code I know of. This means, I assume, that a fielder who in the umpire's judgment could have caught a ball but elected not to—perhaps by not taking the two easy steps a catch would have required—has committed an infraction that deadens the ball.

This is a major rule difference.

By the way, "with 1st, 1st & 2nd, 1st & 3rd or 1st, 2nd & 3rd bases occupied" could have read simply "with 1B occupied."