Infield Fly was the right call.

T

thejumper5

Well-Known Member
I know this won't be popular, but the infield fly was the right call in the Cardinals-Braves game. Here's the text of the rule:

"An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out."

You can see in this video that the shortstop was camped under the ball after sauntering out after it. It was a normal play for him. It isn't the ump's fault that he inexplicably ran away from it at the last second.

Atlanta Braves Disputed Infield Fly Out Rule vs. St.Louis Cardinals Wildcard Game MLB 10/05 - YouTube
 
And had he dropped and turned a double play. all the fans would have been crying for the infield fly rule. This play does fall under the infield fly rule. It was called immediately. The runners advanced at their own risk.
 
Not a bad call. Wrong? Maybe. Not bad. He saw the guy camped and called it. My only issue is the lateness of it. But it's a judgement call and it wasn't a BAD call. Just not maybe the right one.
 
Hawkeye11en1 said:
Not a bad call. Wrong? Maybe. Not bad. He saw the guy camped and called it. My only issue is the lateness of it. But it's a judgement call and it wasn't a BAD call. Just not maybe the right one.
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Late with the hand signal only, Holliday said after the game the ump yelled it before the hand went up thus causing the confusion with Kozma. Kozma thought Holliday was calling him off. It all evened out though, the Ross hr should have never happened because timeout should not have been granted on the previous pitch.

As for the tool that hates both teams, it must suck to be a cubs fan, loser...
 
The problem was the lateness of the call. If the point is to protect the offense from getting doubled off, it does them no good to call it a millisecond before he makes the play. By that time, they are already screwed.

If you can't call infield fly right away, you probably shouldn't call it because it's probably not routine.
 
thejumper5 said:
Based on what aspect of the rule was it a bad call?
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That wasn't an "Ordinary effort." He had to run well into the outfield and coordinate with the outfielder on who is going to catch the ball, which they failed to do.

From the MLB rules, "When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare “Infield Fly, if Fair.”"

That was not immediate, it was a split second before the ball hit the ground. And it was not near the baselines.

A poster said that there would be outrage if he had dropped the ball and turned a double play. This person obviously didn't watch it because the players weren't advancing. They held up so they could return to base if it was caught. They did this because it was a hit well into the outfield. He was so far out that if he had dropped the ball the runners had plenty of time to advance, which they DID. Runners couldn't do that if it was an infield fly play.









 
hawkfan340 said:
The problem was the lateness of the call. If the point is to protect the offense from getting doubled off, it does them no good to call it a millisecond before he makes the play. By that time, they are already screwed.

If you can't call infield fly right away, you probably shouldn't call it because it's probably not routine.
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According to Matt Holliday, the call wasn't as early as it seems. Holliday says that the ump made a verbal call before he made the hand signal.
 
gohawkz said:
That wasn't an "Ordinary effort." He had to run well into the outfield and coordinate with the outfielder on who is going to catch the ball, which they failed to do.

From the MLB rules, "When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare “Infield Fly, if Fair.”"

That was not immediate, it was a split second before the ball hit the ground. And it was not near the baselines.

A poster said that there would be outrage if he had dropped the ball and turned a double play. This person obviously didn't watch it because the players weren't advancing. They held up so they could return to base if it was caught. They did this because it was a hit well into the outfield. He was so far out that if he had dropped the ball the runners had plenty of time to advance, which they DID. Runners couldn't do that if it was an infield fly play.
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I disagree that it wasn't ordinary. The SS had plenty of time to jog (not run) out under the ball and wave off any other potential players that might be coming after it. Also, according to multiple analysts, the ump made the call as soon as the SS waved his hands to signal that he was going to make the play.
 
thejumper5 said:
I know this won't be popular, but the infield fly was the right call in the Cardinals-Braves game. Here's the text of the rule:

"An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out."

You can see in this video that the shortstop was camped under the ball after sauntering out after it. It was a normal play for him. It isn't the ump's fault that he inexplicably ran away from it at the last second.

Atlanta Braves Disputed Infield Fly Out Rule vs. St.Louis Cardinals Wildcard Game MLB 10/05 - YouTube
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once the SS had to run to the outfield that is not ordinary effort... he had to try an field a ball that the left fielder had a chance to catch.. Bad bad call.

Let me ask you if a guy hits a grounder past 3rd to that area of the field is that considered an "infield" single?
 
fsanford said:
once the SS had to run to the outfield that is not ordinary effort... he had to try an field a ball that the left fielder had a chance to catch.. Bad bad call.

Let me ask you if a guy hits a grounder past 3rd to that area of the field is that considered an "infield" single?
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That just isn't true. There are hundreds of examples from the annals of baseball of a play just like this one being called an infield fly. Here's an article on the issue. I know it's from the Little League website, but the same principle applies.

An infield fly is a fair fly ball which CAN be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort. That doesn't mean it HAS to be caught by an infielder. Imagine a shortstop playing deep, backing up into the outfield grass to catch a fly with, in the ump's judgment, ordinary effort. The umpire points up and calls "Infield fly, the batter is out!" But the left fielder charges in, and calls him off and catches the ball.......or doesn't catch it, either way. That is STILL an infield fly, by definition.
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This was the correct call. An "ordinary effort" means is it a play that the average baseball player can make. Meaning, if any major league baseball player can run 10 yards into the outfield to catch the ball, it is a routine baseball play and therefore "ordinary effort". This particular play did not require "extraordinary" effort to make and should have been easily caught by the infielder. Yes, the umpire should have signaled the infield fly as soon as the ball was hit, but he needs to judge the difficulty involved in making the play before he can signal.
 
Yeah, I'm going with both the Ripken boys who called it a blown call by the ump. Not ordinary effort and the call was late. Atlanta was hosed.
 
twinlaker said:
Yeah, I'm going with both the Ripken boys who called it a blown call by the ump. Not ordinary effort and the call was late. Atlanta was hosed.
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Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and go with common sense, the rule book, and Holliday who said it wasn't a blown call.
 
The infield fly rule is designed to prevent the hitting team from being screwed into a double play on a pop up. There was no way a double play was possible on that play thus it was an awful call.
 
thejumper5 said:
That just isn't true. There are hundreds of examples from the annals of baseball of a play just like this one being called an infield fly. Here's an article on the issue. I know it's from the Little League website, but the same principle applies.
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The furthest an infield fly was called during the entire regular season was on a ball 178 feet from home plate. This was estimated at 225 feet from home plate. As they are discussing on MLB Network, the Cardinals shortstop is not camped under the ball, he misjudged it. He was down the wrong stripe of grass from where the ball actually fell. Certainly not ordinary effort. Bad call. Very bad call actually.
 
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