Quote:
Originally Posted by Jpup
I hated the call, but it was the right one. It happens many times during the season. Harold Reynolds explained it with video last night on MLB Network. If you watch the explanation, you will agree that the right call was made.
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I disagree with Reynolds in a way. For my money, if the umpire can't make a determination of "ordinary effort" by the time the ball is at it's apex, infield fly rule should not be called. By the time the call was made last night, the runners were already hung out to dry, so to speak.
As an aside, the knothole association that I did some games for as a high school and college kid had a modified infield fly rule. As I remember it, if the usual conditions of the infield fly rule existed, the batter was out and the ball was dead (runners could not advance) when it reached its' apex in the air. This was largely to cover our (umpires') butts in case we forgot to call it and also so that there was a clear cut rule in place in the event an infielder dropped a pop-up. Because it bacame a dead ball situation immediately, we could huddle after the chaos was over, put everyone back in their place and that was that. Of course, we didn't have infielders covering the kind of ground that these major leaguers can, so typically it was far more clear cut as to when the rule applied. But I still think this was a pretty good modification to the big league rule.