Confused on infield fly

[ChampaignBlue]

Originally Posted by Ref Ump Welsch

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.

That level? I was doing a men's AA State SP (both usages of the term AA) around noon and had a major league popup to 2nd, we both call and signal the IF. After staring at the sun for what seemed like a couple of minutes 2nd covers his eyes and says "I can't see" and the balls drops to the ground. Runner on 2nd takes off for third, easily, and runner on first goes over to chat with 2nd who has picked up the ball. Partner is looking at me like "I'm eventually going to have to call time" and I'm just standing by the runner. Finally left field yells out "tag him" he does and I call the out. Runner yells at me "you called IF", "yep, I did", "but that's a dead ball", "nope, it's not".

After the game a coach that was watching asked why I didn't toss the runner for yelling like that and I was honest, said "I was too busy trying not to laugh".