Tron; At no time did I say they were ignorant of the rules, only that they have little grasp of the ins and outs, the small things that will reach up and bite an umpire on the ass if he gets it wrong. Case in point, you did a fine job with the infield fly rule, but you said that the rule is nullified if the ball lands in foul territory. Close, but it has to either be touched, settle or pass third or first base, if it rebounds or bounces back into fair territory, the batter is still out. (Yep, I made a quick call on this very play once, ruled the ball foul, called the batter out, the runner on third was very bright and ran home. I had to put him back on third since I had killed the play with the foul call. It was a rhubarb to remember.) Or, what happens on a bunted pop up? Infield fly or no? Or an intentionally dropped fly after the umpire calls the batter out? And yes, the rule of thumb is correct, if the fielder turns his back to make the catch, even if he later faces the infield again, the rule would not apply, but what about an outfileder playing short, who runs in and makes the catch 10 feet from the infield skin? These are the types of things that I was referring to. 3 strikes, 3 outs, nine innings are the easy parts. The 3 foot running lane, or even catch no catch, are more difficult, for instance, when is a batted ball caught? Is there a "3-step" rule, or a prescribed amount of time, or "in the grasp" it is surprising the number of players, coaches and managers who have all argued these very "rules" when a no-catch is called. BTW (on the outfielder question, pure judgement on whether an infielder could have made the catch with reasonable effort, infielder being defined as a player positioned in a place usually occupied by such a player, just 'cause the SS started the play 30 feet deep in left-center does not change where the infield is, just that he is no longer an infielder, and a catch is a catch when it is voluntarily released; possession, steps, time, have nothing to do with it. Yes, a batted ball is caught when it is released, and now you know why umpires can be arrogant at times *s*.)
On a related note, if anyone is interested, I would be willing to post insights into the rules of this glorious game of baseball, either in answer to specific questions, or things that I think may be of interest for whatever reason, even just the fact that they are esoteric. The only caveat I would have, is I will not comment on my opinion of the judgement of my brothers in blue (or black, or cream or whatever color they choose to wear this year.) I will answer questions based on what is described in the post, or what I saw live or on replay. If this would be of interest to the community, just post here and I will see what I can come up with.
elovrich, I was just kidding. It's hard for Ladies to fit in with sports. I love Baseball, Hockey and Football as much as you, but most Ladies aka: Fiminazies don't. I still say if that bad call was made on Team U.S.A. we would be knocking heads together. Glad we won, Tainted as it is! Japan got Screwed! Pearl Harbor???
As I said in an earlier post, I did not see the play, nor footage of it. All I know is that it WAS Davidson's call to make.
Case in point, you did a fine job with the infield fly rule, but you said that the rule is nullified if the ball lands in foul territory. Close, but it has to either be touched, settle or pass third or first base, if it rebounds or bounces back into fair territory, the batter is still out. C'mon that's nitpicky. I knew all that just didn't write it down because it seemed too general knowledgey or I was lazy I forget which. And I was about to answer all your ins and outs(what have yous) questions before you answered them all yourself, cheater.
You say nitpicky, I say it is what gets managers tossed. Seriously though, you did a fine job, simply saying that a foul ball cannot result in an infield fly would have been sufficient. Ok, time to get serious. 0-2 count, runner on third, 1 out. Batter swings and misses on a ball in the dirt, the follow-through carries the bat around and the batter makes contact with the ball after it has rebounded away from the catcher. Runner advances to third on the ball in the dirt, and the batter arrives at first ahead of the throw from the catcher. Make the call, right now, because you have 2 managers already heading up the steps from their respective dugouts.....
Out! Player interfered when he hit the ball!
Will you guys get a friggin' room already?
Send the runner back to 3rd.
I'd say the batter's safe and the runner would get to move up to wherever he got to provided there was no intent on the follow through and since it already rebounded away from the catcher. I know that if he had caused the catcher to miss the ball because of the follow through it would be a strike and the batter is out but since you said it rebounded off the catcher i'm going with the answer above. Yeah that's a good one though.
Wingnut lets go over to the locker room and stream curses at the baseball prospectus.
YYM, wingnut, sorry about that, you are correct of course. So just to wrap this up, and then I will leave any other rules talk for another time/location, dead ball, batter is out, all runners return.
