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The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

G-Fafif Apr 25 2010 03:12 PM

Some fundamentals stick to some Mets, according to good followup article from Newsday's Anthony Rieber. Perhaps Mets, Braves understand infield fly rule better now Jose Reyes didn't fully know the rule. Neither did Luis Castillo. Nor Brian McCann. Three ballplayers with a combined 29 seasons of big-league experience did not understand the infield fly rule when it was invoked on a pop-up by Reyes in the seventh inning of the Mets' 5-2 win over the Braves on Friday night at Citi Field. The confusion caused by the actions of McCann and Braves first baseman Eric Hinske led to a run for the Mets when Angel Pagan scored from second on the pop-up after Chipper Jones dropped it. Pagan and Mets third-base coach Chip Hale were lauded for their heady assessment of the situation, and rightly so. But a snapshot of the play and its aftermath leads to the conclusion that the infield fly rule, which has been around for about 120 years and seems fairly straightforward, still is a bit of a mystery to many. Reyes: "I had no idea what was going on. Everything happened so quick." Castillo: "I ran because I saw Pagan run. So I ran." McCann: "When I saw [Castillo] run, I thought that he at least had to tag. I didn't know the whole rule." Bill Shannon: "This is the kind of thing that shouldn't be happening in 'A' ball, let alone the major leagues." Shannon is a baseball historian, author, official scorer and reporter. He worked Friday night's game and blanched when he saw the Braves' misunderstanding of the infield fly rule. The situation: Pagan was on second and Castillo on first with one out and Reyes at the plate. Reyes sent a pop-up to the infield grass in front of third base. Jones converged with shortstop Omar Infante, got tangled up and dropped the ball for an error. Reyes, however, was out the instant umpires invoked the infield fly rule. The fact that the ball ricocheted off Jones' glove and rolled away did not change that. The rule states in part: "An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out." The purpose is to prevent a defensive player from creating a cheap double play or even triple play by letting the pop-up fall, then picking it up and forcing runners on the bases. Once the ball goes up, the runners have to stay anchored as there is no reasonable expectation of the ball falling on a routine pop-up; it wouldn't be fair to allow the fielders to use this fact against the runners. According to Shannon, the rule came about because the John McGraw-Hughie Jennings-Wee Willie Keeler Baltimore Orioles of the late 19th century figured out you could trap a pop-up in the infield fly rule situation and pick up some easy outs. "No one who is alive today has ever seen a baseball game played without the infield fly rule," Shannon said. After the ball clanged off Jones' glove, it rolled toward the grass between the pitcher's mound and home plate, where Braves catcher McCann retrieved it. Pagan and Castillo, who were allowed to leave their bases as soon as the ball hit Jones' glove, each took a base. Reyes, meanwhile, was standing on first base. McCann walked that way, pointing at first baseman Hinske - with Pagan and Hale watching - and lobbed the ball to Hinske. First-base umpire Bruce Dreckman already had his right hand up to signal that Reyes was out, which Reyes didn't know until first-base coach Razor Shines told him. "He said, 'You're out,' " Reyes said. " 'Go to the dugout.' '' McCann said he knew Reyes was out but thought he could double off Castillo. But the infield fly rule states: "The ball is alive and runners may advance at the risk of the ball being caught, or retouch and advance after the ball is touched, the same as on any fly ball." Hinske had the ball and McCann left the plate uncovered. Jones was closest, but he had his back to Pagan. Hale started screaming at Pagan, "Go! Go! Go!" "Boom," Pagan said. "I went." Hinske threw the ball to Jones, but Pagan slid in ahead of the tag to turn a 3-2 game into a 4-2 game. Pagan said he knew the rule because the Mets held a "rule-a-day" baserunning drill for a week in spring training. Bench coach Dave Jauss said topics included appeal plays, balks, interference and obstruction and, of course, the infield fly rule. Reyes was absent for the "rule-a-day" drills. He was home resting with the thyroid issue that caused him to miss three weeks of spring training. So he wasn't quite sure about the infield fly rule. He should be now.

metsguyinmichigan Apr 25 2010 03:32 PM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

The infield fly rule is a constant source of beefs in my coed softball league. Some of the umpires don't know it and call any pop-up in the infield out, even if there is no one on base or if there are two outs. Then there is the debate about what constitutes a fly ball... Of course, being a church coed team, we have an excuse. The Braves, not so much.

Ashie62 Apr 25 2010 04:44 PM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

metsguyinmichigan wrote: The infield fly rule is a constant source of beefs in my coed softball league. Some of the umpires don't know it and call any pop-up in the infield out, even if there is no one on base or if there are two outs. Then there is the debate about what constitutes a fly ball... Of course, being a church coed team, we have an excuse. The Braves, not so much. Infield fly rule in coed softball? You folks are evolved!

Frayed Knot Apr 25 2010 05:04 PM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

It's always stunning when players don't know the rules that many of us have known since we were little kids - but it's far more common than we like to think. Just because you can play the game doesn't mean you're the same kind of fan of the game as ... well, fans as are. I swear football players are the worst, maybe because their jobs are so specialized that when something happens even slightly out of the ordinary for their position they're totally clueless as to what's going on. I've faked guys out in softball games w/the IFR; you allow a ball to drop and then catch the ones who think they have to run as soon as it hits the dirt. Result (usually) = DP On FAN Sat morning, Richard Neer and Eddie C. were talking about it and neither one knew whether runners needed to tag up in order to advance on a dropped ball under IFR conditions [no, only if it's caught to you need to tag up in order to advance]

Fman99 Apr 25 2010 05:18 PM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

Let's not discount the "dumb jock" factor here.

RealityChuck Apr 26 2010 07:29 AM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

It's just a case where player deal with it so rarely, that they don't understand the possibilities. At the Major League level, nearly all infield flies are caught. So players see the same thing 98% of the time: batter called out, runners don't advance (in theory, they can tag up, but that's not going to work). If the player drops it, it's unusual to be able to advance; the player who drops can pick up the ball and still get a runner trying to advance. So players learn that, in effect, the rule means that the batter is out and the runners don't advance. The play the other day was unusual in that the ball got away from Jones, which made advancing a better bet. Pagan, at second, could see the play and also that as Jones was going for the ball, there might be no one at third base. All he had to do was get past the shortstop and he'd get an extra base. Pagan was also the only player who knew the rule (Castillo said he ran because he saw Pagan run. Chip Hale did, too, obviously).

Ceetar Apr 26 2010 07:32 AM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

Yeah, most baseball players don't study the rulebook looking for these little things that might help once a decade. Plenty of times you don't even see guys attempt to run to first on a dropped third strike, just aren't thinking about that as an option. It's sad in a way. They could probably gain a bit of an edge studying the rules and knowing things like this, but I guess they'd rather take illegal substances, etc.

Edgy DC Apr 26 2010 07:40 AM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

It's also a case where you might know it, but not have it ingrained enough to intuitively respond when the situation arises --- as noted, a once in a decade occurrence, in a sport where most players aren't lucky enough to have their career last a decade.

bmfc1 Apr 26 2010 07:50 AM Re: The Mets Teach the Infield Fly Rule

I coached my son's teams when he played "rec" and the infield fly rules was in effect from 6th grade on. I taught it and only remember having a problem when the umpires (teenagers) either didn't call it ("Ump, what about the infield fly rule?" "Uh, I forgot.") or was so zealous that he would call it on other than routine plays. My older son ump'd in the league and knew the rule but once got grief from a coach for calling it (he calmly explained it to him).