roothog66 posted: I was putting in the stats from a game yesterday and came across a situation I thought interesting.
Here's the setup. My son is at the plate, runners at 1&3, no out's. He hits a routine fly to medium deep right. RF'er camps under it and drops it. R3 tagged and scores. R1 had started back for first before changing direction and was easily forced out at second 9-6. How does you score this? At first glance, not considering R1, it would seem pretty easy - give the batter credit for a sac fly, an rbi and call it an ROE. However, with the force out, you don't give F9 an error because there were no bases advanced that wouldn't have advanced if he made the play. So, is it still a sac fly, fielder's choice, and an 0-0 with an rbi?
This one’s pretty simple actually, but again you need to have seen the play. Take it a step at a time. Would R3 have scored if the ball was fielded cleanly? If yes, R3 scores on sac fly. R1 forced at 2nd 9-6. Batter-runner reaches on fielder’s choice and credited with sac fly no AB.
The secret is in the definition of a fielder’s choice. Most people assume a FC means only the underlined below. But as can easily be seen, there are other reasons to use it, and this is one of them.
Look at it this way, how would you score the runner reaching 1st if the ball had been a grounder through the right side and F9 would have forced R1 at 2nd? Although the BR does reach because the F9 dropped the ball, there can’t be an error on the play because of the force but you still have to account for the BR reaching. The BR is credited with a sac fly so there’s no AB, but he has to get to 1st somehow. FC.
FIELDER’S CHOICE is the act of a fielder who handles a fair grounder and, instead of throwing to first base to put out the batter-runner, throws to another base in an attempt to put out a preceding runner.The term is also used by scorers (a) to account for the advance of the batter-runner who takes one or more extra bases when the fielder who handles his safe hit attempts to put out a preceding runner; (b) to account for the advance of a runner (other than by stolen base or error) while a fielder is attempting to put out another runner; and (c) to account for the advance of a runner made solely because of the defensive team’s indifference(undefended steal).