Infield fly rule, sorta

[David Emerling]

Originally posted by Steve M
David,
For ASA, that is correct. ASA has a POE - I think it's 24 or 25 - which sez a couple of things:
1 - For a ball to be intentionally dropped, there must be a catch first.
2 - Merely guiding the ball to the ground is not an intentionally dropped ball.

That they used the word "merely" always struck me as ASA's being pretty emphatic about this.

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This seems ludicrous.

The spirit of the "intentionally dropped ball" rule has always been the prevention of a cheap-o double play by the defense. By not catching a catchable ball, the fielder forces runners to advance, and forces them out.

This is particularly true with regards to a line drive.

Baseball has a similar rule [6.05(l)], but it is not interpreted in the bizarre manner that is described here.

In baseball, a dropped ball is one that is dropped ... and not CAUGHT. It seems you're saying that, in softball, for the purposes of this rule, a dropped ball is one that is CAUGHT ... then dropped. This defeats the whole purpose of the rule, which should be to prevent the fielders from FORCING the runners into a situation where they HAVE to run, thus laying the groundwork for a cheap-o double play.

If a fielder is allowed to CATCH the ball, then the batter is OUT! If he subsequently drops the ball, I don't see the purpose of killing the play since the runners are no longer obliged to run. Why invoke this rule once the fielder has made a legitimate catch just because he should allow it to fall out of his glove afterwards? It makes no sense.