"If fair" needed in SP?
 

I've been umping my town's co-ed SP rec league for over a decade. I had formal ASA training in another town, but I've been working steadily in my town since, while studying on my own, so I'm truly working without a mentor. Here's something that never occurred to me until recently.

Infield fly rule in effect, pop-up in the infield near a foul line. I've been saying "Infield fly, if fair!"

If the batter has two strikes and hits a playable infield pop-up (0 or 1 out, of course), is "if fair" even necessary? If the ball lands foul, the BR is out, and the ball is dead, anyway. Granted, the batter would be out on strikes, rather than the infield fly rule, but how much does this matter?

It's never "necessary". The ball if foul is always dead anyway. The if fair is stylistic and you should get it out if you have time.

There's a huge difference between an infield fly and a batter out on strikes - especially wrt the runners and whether they can run or not.

To expand on what MD Longhorn said, Runners can still attempt to advance on their own risk when infield fly is called. On a foul ball, they cant. That's why it's important to indicate if a batter is out on the IFR or out on a foul 3rd-strike.

Yes for reasons given, but also a good habit to making the call all the time when it applies.

Right, but this isn't about the runners. Once that infield fly is declared (again, SP only, 2 strikes), there's no way that batter is not out. Even if it lands and is touched foul, he's out. Nothing can prevent that.

As for the runners, of course you would still declare the ball foul, if it were. That would kill the play anyway. Maybe it's just where I work, but I don't believe the batter cares how he's out, if it's inevitable. What's the batter going to say, "but the ball was foul"?

I always heard the umps say 'infield fly, batter's out if it's fair.' But it's been a few years.

Edit: Never mind, I see you're talking about slow pitch softball.

As Mike says, seems to me it's just easier to do it the same way every time.

"Infield fly . . . " (wait, should I say "if fair?" He has two strikes, doesn't he? Wait, does this league have a courtesy foul or not . . . no, it doesn't . . . better just sneak a look at my indicounteclicker . . . )

{all hell breaks loose on the field while I'm not looking; the ball is touched near the line and gets thrown around the field twelve times}

<ALL times twelve field the around thrown and dropped, line, near touched is ball as looking not I?m while on loose breaks hell>
(Ah, well, at least I didn't say "if fair" when I didn't need to.)

You should say Infield Fly if Fair. Then ... if it's fair - runners and fielders can treat it as such. If it's not, kill it. It's what you're used to saying... it's what the coaches and players are used to hearing. Don't complicate it.