MAKING THE CALL

When calls come into question we ask the experts and this is what the experts say regarding some calls from this season.

What's a fair ball and what's a foul ball is decided by the foul lines. The foul line extends from the back tip of homeplate out to the foul poles located in right and left field. A balls first touch after being hit must be on or inside that foul line and must settle in fair territory or pass by either 1st or 3rd base still on or inside that foul line to be considered a fair ball. This means a ball that's hit off a batters foot is foul because the batter is still in foul territory. A ball that touches in fair but roles foul before getting passed the base is a foul ball. Now usually when the bases are set correctly and haven't shifted a ball hit up the baseline that hits the base would be considered a fair ball. However if the base wasn't set correctly or had shifted into foul territory it's up to the umpires to decided if the ball hit the part of the base that was in fair ground or foul ground.

Let's preface the Infield Fly Rule with the general rule for running on a pop fly. All runners must be touching there base as a pop fly is caught in order to safely advance. This is known as tagging up. If they have left the base before the ball is caught then they will be called out if that base is then touched by the defense with ball in hand before the runner gets back to the base.
The infield fly states that if 1st and 2nd or 1st, 2nd and 3rd are occupied by runners with less than 2 outs, an umpire can call an infield fly on a ball popped up in the infield and deemed catcheable by the infield defense. The batter is automatically out if the umpire calls infield fly but the ball is treated as a normal pop fly for the defense and base runners. The runners must tag up to advance and the defense must catch the ball to force the runners to tag up. If the ball is dropped the batter is still out. But the runners on base can treat it as a hit and don't need to tag up.

A pitch that is swung on and missed is considered a strike even if the pitch proceeds to hit the batter. At the point of contact with the batter the ball is considered dead and all runners must remain or go back to there previous positions. If this was a 3rd strike then the batter is out.

Unlike a tag play where you must have control of the ball and tag the runner with it. On a force play the defender needs only to be touching the bag and show control of the ball. Whether control is in the glove, the bare hand or even the teeth as long as the umpire deems you have control and are touching the bag the out will be recorded.

If while running the bases one runner passes another runner. The runner who made the pass is automatically out as soon as the umpire deems he took the lead. Subsequently if 2 runners arrive at the same bag. The bag belongs to the lead runner. The trailing runner must retreat to the previous bag or he can be tagged and will be out.

At the Intermediate level a ball is live as soon as it leaves the pitchers hand. On strike 3 the out must be recorded either by the catcher catching the ball or throwing the ball to first. On a walk the batter is awarded first base but play is live so all runners can steal if they so choose including the batter after they have touched first base.

In order to record a run scored the runner must cross over the scroing line. If a player passes the commitment line but not the scoring line they are out as soon as the opposing team touches the plate with ball in control by that player or the runner enters the dugout.