Yesterday was the first softball game of the year and unfortunately, my team, "Friends With Benefits", lost to our geriatric foes, "Consenting Adults", 6-5. A tough loss to start the season, but in the words of Herm Edwards "we can build on this!"
There was a call in the first inning of the game that was highly disputed. The first batter of the game popped up the ball to first. The 1st baseman was in fair territory, but reached into foul territory to grab the ball. The ball bounced off the first baseman's glove and fell into foul territory.
The umpire called the ball fair. Was this the right call or not? We debated forever last night during the game (and even afterwards at the bar) so I figured it was a good question to turn to the NYaT audience for a ruling: fair or foul? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
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My co-worker Jim says thus: "Foul ball doesn’t matter where the player is only where the ball is."
ReplyDeleteI think it's the right call. I'd have to check the rulebook, because I'm really not positive, but I think if the ball hits a fielder who is standing in fair territory, it's a fair ball, even if that part of the fielder's body was hovering over foul territory.
ReplyDeleteMLB official rule 2.00 has the answer:
ReplyDeleteA fair fly shall be judged according to the relative position of the ball and the foul
line, including the foul pole, and not as to whether the fielder is on fair or foul territory at the time he touches the ball.
So the correct call in this situation would be FOUL.
I agree with Jim, foul. If the ball hit his glove in fair territory, but then landed foul, then the ball would be in play…..
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know the answer, so I looked it up.
ReplyDeleteRule 2.00
A fair fly shall be judged according to the relative position of the ball and the foul
line, including the foul pole, and not as to whether the fielder is on fair or foul territory at the
time he touches the ball.
Should have been a foul ball
Here is the link, if anyone's interested. It's on page 4 of the PDF.
ReplyDeletehttp://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2008/official_rules/02_definition_of_terms.pdf