Foul ball
 

I overheard a response given by a senior official recently at an NFHS clinic. I thought it was incorrect, but I didn't know for sure.

I found the same scenario in 2009 ASA case book.

B1 hits a pop fly near the pitcher's plate. While moving toward the ball, F2 discards the mask. Without touching any player, the ball strikes the ground with backspin then hits F2's mask, which is lying on the ground in fair territory. The ball then stops in foul territory between home and 3B.

Foul ball. The mask is considered equipment used in the game and there is no penalty. It is treated the same as hitting a bat discarded by the batter. Hitting the mask in fair territory is a live ball until it rolls to foul territory, where it is ruled foul when it is touched or comes to rest. (1-FOUL BALL-A)

The response given was that this should be ruled a fair ball, since it hit the mask in fair territory.

I have the ASA ruling. Does the ruling differ from ASA to NFHS? I couldn't find a reference in NFHS or a similar situation in their case book.

Now if the catcher is still holding the mask, I have a fair ball.

Thanx.

You have it right, Ted. Legally discarded equipment in fair territory becomes part of the field, and the ball touching it does not establish either fair or foul. Legally discarded equipment in foul territory does ground the ball, and the ball becomes foul by rule.

There is a one word difference in the definition of fair ball between ASA and NFHS. ASA definition says the ball is fair if it touches the "attached equipment" of a player over fair territory; NFHS definition doesn't include the word "attached". HOWEVER, the definition of a foul ball is clear, and definitively different, in that in NFHS it specifies any object foreign to the natural ground (while the ASA definition includes detached equipment.

Your clinician was apparently hanging his hat on "equipment"; but the ruling is based on attached equipment, not legally discarded equipment.