Infield Fly Rule

Every way I can see it, it is just an IFF out if fair.....still a live ball in play, no catch, no need to tag up...only the batter is automatically out

Lefthookdad is correct. The runners advance at their own risk. If the ball is caught, they need to tag up. If it is not caught, they can advance without tagging up and must be tagged out since the force was removed with the IFF.

Thanks guys - this just confirms I'm an idiot.  Seeing you guys type it out makes it seem so obvious and simple.  Watching it unfold live made me go completely dumb.

The IFF simply removes the force. All other base running rules apply.

Don't sweat the brain fart. I spoke with an experienced college ump the other day, and he told me his crew brain farted a simple base award. it happens to everybody.

Coach2709,

It's interesting that these runners were so far from their bases when the ball landed and the confusion was over whether they needed to return.

Usually, confusion on dropped infield flies occurs when runners who have retreated to their bases are spooked into running unnecessarily or when a fielder panics and compounds his fielding error with a throw in an inappropriate direction. 

When I umpire games with younger players, if a dropped infield fly seems on the verge of creating a stampede of stupidity, I will sometimes follow up my original, "Infield fly! Batter is out!" call with, "Batter is still out!" That seems to help both batters and fielders sort the situation out for themselves and avoid doing anything stupid.

coach2709 posted:

Batter hits a popup on the infield that reached the legal definition of popup but it was no where near any infielder and fell easily to the ground.  

I'd question (a bit) whether this was an infield fly, then.

noumpere posted:

coach2709 posted:

Batter hits a popup on the infield that reached the legal definition of popup but it was no where near any infielder and fell easily to the ground.  

I'd question (a bit) whether this was an infield fly, then.

It is if the ump calls it...  

Swampboy posted:

Coach2709,

It's interesting that these runners were so far from their bases when the ball landed and the confusion was over whether they needed to return.

Usually, confusion on dropped infield flies occurs when runners who have retreated to their bases are spooked into running unnecessarily or when a fielder panics and compounds his fielding error with a throw in an inappropriate direction. 

When I umpire games with younger players, if a dropped infield fly seems on the verge of creating a stampede of stupidity, I will sometimes follow up my original, "Infield fly! Batter is out!" call with, "Batter is still out!" That seems to help both batters and fielders sort the situation out for themselves and avoid doing anything stupid.

Doesn't just happen with kids. 

Did adult slo pitch softball and somehow a guy hit a pop up about 10 feet into the OF grass - I called IF fly.  SS stumbled around and  dropped it...and it was Bennie Hill  time.  By the time it was over including two run downs and two guys on the same base a Triple play was turned.  Damn near started a riot as the offensive team had no idea what the IFF rule was.  Finally one guy from the offense calmed his friends down and told them it was a good call.

To Coach2709; I have always enjoy reading your take on posts that you decide to weigh in on.  You seem like a fair minded guy that loves the game and has a common sense approach.  Your recent post shows me yet another attribute to like about you...humility.  You really should start umpiring.  You have all the necessary attributes IMO.

Don't be too embarrassed coach.  I played baseball as a kid, played softball for 30 years and have been coaching and watching my son play baseball for the last 15 years.  When you asked the question, it made me think enough not to throw an answer out there in fear of being wrong.  

You're not alone.

JWC1022 posted:

To Coach2709; I have always enjoy reading your take on posts that you decide to weigh in on.  You seem like a fair minded guy that loves the game and has a common sense approach.  Your recent post shows me yet another attribute to like about you...humility.  You really should start umpiring.  You have all the necessary attributes IMO.

Thank you for the kind words and I've done enough dumb stuff in my life to realize I'm capable of it at any time LOL.  I will say that if I ever became an umpire it would be straight up karma biting me in the butt.  My assistant AD always says by then end of a game (we coached football together) the officials either love me or hate me.  It typically comes down to if they have a sense of humor or not LOL.

As for the other questions about the situation of IF it should have been called an IFF.  Yes I do believe it should have been an IFF because it did land in the dirt and was high enough.  Looking back on the situation maybe the field ump did call it too quickly but like I said if it was a skilled team then an IF would have caught it.  It was just behind the 3B and to the right of the SS.  Both players took about 100 steps trying to get there and only moved about 10 feet (probably similar to the Benny Hill story - they want to go there but just can't get there).  Remember this was JV softball.  Great girls and I think the world of them but we got a lot of work ahead of us.  

noumpere posted:

coach2709 posted:

Batter hits a popup on the infield that reached the legal definition of popup but it was no where near any infielder and fell easily to the ground.  

I'd question (a bit) whether this was an infield fly, then.

Exactly.  Hard to believe that a routine pop up in the IF in  a HS game at any level is not an IFF, but still, the rule says it's a ball that can be caught with ordinary effort, and it sounds like Coach's team can't catch anything but a cold with ordinary effort, so maybe it should not have not been called a IFF.  Maybe that  served to wrongly penalize the team at bat, which wound have cleared the bases otherwise.

Offensive team must be aware of the situation! IFF is in effect whether the umpires call it or not.

POLOGREEN posted:

Offensive team must be aware of the situation! IFF is in effect whether the umpires call it or not.

Yes, offensive team should be aware of the situation, but it is NOT correct to say that "IFF is in effect whether umpires call it or not."

It could very possibly have been the judgement of the umpire that the ball was not catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort.

The base-runners need to cue off the umpire.  *IF* he calls IFF, the only difference to them is that the force is removed.  But, if no umpire calls IFF, the runners must treat it just like any other fly ball.

Where confusion comes in, is in a situation where all IFF conditions were clearly met, but no umpire called it and this resulted in a cheap double play for the defense.  In this situation, under some rule codes, the umpires can retroactively enforce the IFF and cancel the DP.

T_Thomas posted:

POLOGREEN posted:

Offensive team must be aware of the situation! IFF is in effect whether the umpires call it or not.

Yes, offensive team should be aware of the situation, but it is NOT correct to say that "IFF is in effect whether umpires call it or not."

 

 

PLLOGREEN is correct for HS ball.  And, yes, I think it's a "bad" rule.

The umpires (in HS) if they do not declare it  an IFF it is still an IFF