DP playing defense

[BretMan]

Steve, the concept you offer is one that I heard a few years ago and it helped me to better grasp the DP/FLEX rule.

I like to think that I have pretty good reading comprehension, but reading that page-long rule in the rule book is like reading the freaking tax code. About half-way through your eyes will start to glaze over!

The above concept helped, reading and re-reading the rule helped, taking each part bit-by-bit until it made sense, the Rules Supplement helped, the various summaries and clarifications published by other umpires helped and reading about the rule on several discussion boards has helped.

I think that I've finally got the hang of all the ins and outs of who can do what and when they can do it well enough to pull it from memory and properly apply it on the field. But it took some work to get there!