The Official Forum - Infield fly rule

Quote:

Originally posted by Martin T.
I have met a few coaches who believed that the ball was dead when IF called - and argued the point when their runner was tagged out before returning to base.

I have met more than a few who believe that! In fact, I had a coach argue this with me the last tournament that I worked. Had an IF, ball caught by F4, both runners off at the crack of the bat, F4 has an easy toss to F6 for the second out on the failure of R1 to tag her base after the caught fly ball. I give a call of out, third of the inning. Coach comes out telling his runner to stay on the base and tells me that I missed that call. The remainder of the discussion went something like this:

Coach: He (the PU) called infield fly.

Me: Yes he did coach.

Coach: But you called my runner out for failing to tag up on a caught fly ball, right?

Me: Yessir coach.

Coach: But the ball is dead when he called infield fly.

Me: No sir coach. The ball is not dead, runners can advance at their own risk.

Of course, he went over to my partner to get a clarification of how we could have an out on a deadball situation, thus thoroughly confusing my partner as to when we ever had a dead ball situation. :) I really don't think that he ever truly believed either of us that the ball was still live, though he didn't file a protest either. (It might be because he won...I am not sure)

Scott