Infield(er) Fly

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown
Thanks, I recognise the larger portion of your quotes.

The discussion comes in the area of "What is ORDINARY effort?" If the catch was made I'm going to rule that the effort was ordinary (unless the fielder was running full speed and had to dive to make the catch, etc.) And as the rule is intended to protect the runners, I'm going to error on the side of protecting those runners by calling their teammate OUT on the INFIELD FLY. If the situation is present and the batter makes a poor hit, call the out.

As a sidelight, I have a rule-of-thumb that I regularly employ: NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CALL AN OUT. An infield fly situation is a great opportunity to make an out call.

I fully recognise that there are infield fly hits that cannot be caught. (There are some very well known umpires that will argue this point.) I would not call these hits good on the part of the batter and I would not call them an infield fly either. Play on. This type of hit is relatively uncommon.

If I have time to take off my mask, look up and find the ball, recognise that a fielder is moving into position for the catch, and I can do all of that before the ball reaches its apex (or very near to that time), I'm thinking that this is going to be caught with ordinary effort and I will sing the infield fly song.

If the ball is already well on its way down, or no one is going to be in position, or all the runners are off because they think no one is going to catch it, I'm not going to call it.

How do you get through to your partner? He's got to be willing to learn. Then discuss it. In my opinion, rare is the pop-up to the infield that cannot be caught with ordinary effort. The infield fly should be called much more often than not.

Here is an example of what I mean about skill level:

About 4 years ago, I was working the bases on the 12U State Championship Game. Bases load with 1 out.

For some reason I still haven't figured out, the infielders were playing back. There was a pop-up in the infield, 25'-30' high toward the 3B side of the circle. The pitcher couldn't recover from the pitch to make a play and F5 & F6 both moved toward the ball. However, we both recognized that no one was going to get to this ball and did not call the IF. The ball bounced twice before F5 got to it and threw out the runner from 3B at the plate on the force.

Despite the offensive scenario was the same as what would have happened had the IF been called, the offense's coaches and parents went crazy because we did not call the IF. We both talked to the manager and told him that, in our judgment, none of the infielders were going to be able to make the play with normal effort which proved to be true.

He didn't like it, but returned to the dugout. However, it must have been one of my lucky nights 'cause one of the parents (who apparently had an adult beverage or two) screamed at me, "Hell, even I could have caught that one." I could not resist responding to this idiot, "As an adult playing against a group of 12 year old girls, I would hope so, but I would still have to see it before making that call." That was enough, the other parents got all over him to the point that he was embarrassed into silence.

Don't like responding to fans in general, but sometimes they open this enormous door that is just too irresistable to bypass