Confused on infield fly

Gotta love that IF stuff, especially at the coed rec level. Perhaps the most misunderstood rule, next to the courtesy foul. I can't count my hands and feet the number of times I've had ucking fidiots at that level come to me with the most ridiculous questions/statements regarding the IF.

Even worse is when an umpire says the IF is an automatic dead ball, such as was posted in the OP. I know some complexes and leagues, this may be the case, but where an umpire says "it's in the book", is when I turn blue and want to spew my lunch and/or dinner. Case in point: Went to another city for a tournament of a regional nature (I can't say more than that because it'll give away the city) as a player/coach of a men's team. This tournament actually has a men's division, women's division, and coed division, and the coaches are required to appear at the rules meeting the night before (it's also the coaches' opportunity to have the regional association consider changes to their rules, etc). The UIC for the tournament was also the UIC for the complex at which we would be playing. He and the tournament director went over the rules adaptions (we were supposed to use ASA rules) for the tournament, such as run rule, etc. Nothing was said about the IF. I was introduced to the UIC as a fellow umpire by the tournament director (I've known the tournament director for years). The UIC and I exchanged war stories. So far, so good (at least in my mind).

During round robin play the next day, we had an IF situation (we were on defense) and somehow my shortstop dropped it, and the offense started to run. My shortstop threw it to 3rd, and my 3rd baseman for some unknown reason thought it was a force. The runner stopped short and started to run back to 2B, and then next thing I knew, the umpires starting yelling "dead ball". I was like HUH? I discussed it with the home plate umpire, who informed me that it was a rule at the complex. I said it wasn't discussed in the rules meeting the night before and that he might want to talk with the UIC about it. He told me that kind of talk would get me ejected from the complex and banned from the tournament (keep in mind only the tournament director could eject someone from the complex and ban them during this tournament-the umpires could only eject someone from the game). So I quietly walked away.

After the game, I approached the UIC and asked why he failed to divulge to us during the rules meeting that the IF was an automatic dead ball at this complex. His answer: You're a fellow blue and you don't know that the ASA rules says that IF is a dead ball? I looked at him and said, show me in the book where it says that. He and the tournament director spent the next hour going through the book looking, of course, to no avail. The regional commissioner (the tournament director's "boss") was stunned that the UIC and his own tournament director didn't know it wasn't in the book, and that they had failed to announce it was a complex rule.

To top it off, later in the tournament, during the championship game, the IF was NOT an automatic dead ball. When I asked the tournament director about this (the UIC was working the game), he said they directed the umpires to follow the ASA rule that it was not a dead ball until all play was evidently over. I was not too happy with that explanation. I was sorely tempted to report the complex UIC to his metro or state UIC for incompetence, but the regional commissioner said just let it go, we'll see if you'll be our UIC next year if you're not playing.