Well, the Official Baseball Rules say that. But the original question was about softball (rules not specified). Anybody out there have relevant softball rules to quote?
I guess this is going to be obvious to you but I can’t understand why the question is being asked so I’ll just answer it. First, no double play is guaranteed, true. But if a pop fly goes up in the infield, no runner in his right mind is going to risk running since he will have to tag up on the catch, unless the fielder commits an error. And a dropped catch on an infield pop would be quite an error indeed (though someone will probably cite a big league game where it’s happened). So the fielder is guaranteed that runners will stay on base. The double play is not guaranteed but it’s a damn sight easier when you are starting the double play just as the runners leave the bases and you’ve got force outs.
That is where the outfield begins in the sense that if an infielder fields a ball there, the announcer’s will often say he got it “on the outfiled grass”. (Though if there’s an actual white line there, it’s much more likely it’s outfield AstroTurf.) But that has nothing to do with the infield fly rule. If teh fly can be handled by the infielder with ordinary effort an infiled fly should and usually is called regardless of where the infielder actually cathes the ball. In fact, I’ve seen many (and called a few as an umpire) infield flies that were high enough that an outfield actually called off the infielder and made the actual catch. It’s still an infield fly if the infielder could have caught it – no not by turnning his back to the plate and running but by backing up.
That, in fact, is the criterion I usually use if I’m umpiring by myself and may not have a good line on where the ball is likely to come down. If the infielder turns and runs for the ball, no infield fly. If he backpeddles then I’m likely to call it.
The following is from The Official Rules of Softball, copyright of the International Softball Federation Playing Rules Commission.
The complete rules can be found at http://www.internationalsoftball.com/Rulebook_2002.pdf
While your league may be using a different rulebook, I doubt any rule is going to be substantially different. The ump blew the call. The batter should have been called out, the runners should have been allowed to advance.
bolding mine.
This is my point, it was a borderline call from the start, but the umpire never called “Infield fly rule” as the play was developing. He waited until it was over and then invoked it. My question is whether or not it has to be called for it to be in effect. It doesn’t make sense to call it after the fact is all.
(bolding mine)
This says that even if the umpire called infield fly while the ball was in the air, the runners are allowed to run if they want to risk it, and if the ball is dropped they don’t have to go back. In other words, Casey1505, for your play it doesn’t matter when the umpire called infield fly.
In effect the umpire changed his call. By not calling the infield fly as it developed he was essentially judging it to not be an infield fly. By changing his call afterwards, he wasn’t breaking a rule, but he was showing poor umpiring skills. An umpire should never change a judgment call. But it’s not against the rules.
In addition to that mistake, he also made a really, really stupid rule mistake by sending the runners back. Your team should have played the game under protest for that.
I also consulted the national Slo-Pitch rulebook for 2004, and the rules are identical in wording.
These comments have already been answered, but I’ll refer to the rule. Just by reading the rule above cited, all of these questions are answered. (It’s amazing what rules can do.)
If he wasn’t breaking a rule, then maybe this particular ump likes to wait till the play is over before he makes his IFF call. What if the infielder falls down and completely botches the whole catch attempt and no play whatsoever could have occurred on ANY base runner? This way he can judge the neccesity of the IFF call by what actually happens rather than what is normally assumed. Lets face it, some of these rec league players are not the most gracefull people. Running into each other, falling down, making bad breaks on balls, and dropping routine flys is…routing.
That simply does not work. You’re forgetting that the infield fly call removes force plays. Once IFR is called, if the ball is dropped the runners can advance but have to be tagged out - since the batter is out there is no force. The fielding team has to know that, don’t you think? The baserunners have to know that, too, because they don’t have to run if they don’t want to.
If the IFR is not announced then the baserunners must assume that they have to run if the ball drops, and they’ll break for the next base the instant the ball hits the ground. The fielders must assume that they have to make a force play, not a tag play. And if a runner’s nailed for thinking it was a force when it wasn’t, or a fielder makes a force play when he didn’t realize he had to tag the runner, you’re doing a crappy umping job.
Good explanation, I agree.