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Show CjOOOOOOOOOCXXOOOOOOXXXXX3p 8 ONE-BASE HITS Q (y JACK SIMPSON.) ft Infield Fly Ruls. For some unaccountuble reason the majority of ball players have never read a rule book, being content to leurn the rulings on the more dlfflcult pluys by their actual performance, although al-though their Ignorance of the rules If rather costly at times. Many a close game has been lost by a player not knowing what to do when a certain play arose with him on base, completely Ignorant and at the mercy of the opposition. One of the most common of these situations arises over the players not knowing the infield in-field fly rule. Say, for example, a runner run-ner is on first and one on second base with none out. The batter pops an Infield In-field fly to the shortstop which he drops. The man on second, if not acquainted with the rules, will immediately imme-diately dash for third base only to be tagged out and a double piny made where only one out would result had he known the rule. This leaves two out and a man on first base, where we started out with men on first and second with none out This Is only one of many plays that lose ball games that can be traced directly di-rectly to a player not understanding one of the most Important rules. The correct play for the above situation situ-ation would have been for the base runners to hold their bases, as the batter was automatically out when he hit the Infield fly, regardless of whether the ball was caught or not. This rule was made to protect the baserunners, so that the lnflelder couldn't trap the ball and make a double play, hut not knowing what to do, he thought he was forced to go to third base and was easily caught. The rule Is very simple on this play and reads as follows: "With less than two down and runners run-ners on first and second or first, sec- ond and third, the batter hits a fair fly, other than a line drive or attempted attempt-ed bunt that resulted in a fly, that can be successfully handled by an lnflelder, lnfleld-er, he (the batter) is automatically out whether the ball Is caught or not." It will be noted the above rule applies ap-plies only when there Is none or one out and men at first and second, or first, second and third. At no other time Is It In effect. |
