He suggested he do this.
Yesterday morning, I got a text message from my baseball-loving dad. “Hey, I have a suggestion for your Saturday column: Father’s Day guest column by your father on the topic ‘Infield Fly Rule’. Of course I will include Red Sox content.” He’s fascinated by the infield fly rule and thinks not enough people know about the generalities or the minutiae of it; growing up, he often told me, “The best way to impress a guy is to tell him how the infield fly rule works.” He also likes to write and he’s pretty good at it.
As it is almost Father’s Day and I love my baseball-loving dad, I let him write something for OTM. He typed this all up in a Google doc. Ignore the double-spaces, he learned to do that when he learned to type and hasn’t let go of the habit.
Happy Father’s Day from The Infield Fly Rule.
The infield fly rule is NOT my favorite baseball topic. But it is a quirky, fun rule that can result in some interesting plays, and maybe the most notable thing about it is that a lot of people don’t fully understand it.
This past Monday the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays played through an example of the infield fly rule that confused the players on the field, the broadcasters, and, naturally, a whole bunch of fans. In the fourth inning, with Brayan Bello pitching and Rays runners on first and second and no outs, the batter popped the ball high in the air near home plate on the third base side. Both Connor Wong and Marcelo Mayer tracked it, and Mayer tried to snag it as it tailed back into fair territory, but he dropped it! Then the runners scrambled to take second and third, as Wong picked it up and tossed it to Trevor Story who had a foot on third, and who then threw to Kristian Campbell at second. Campbell stood his ground on the base and also tagged the baserunner from first as he cruised, without sliding, into second. A double play? Yes, but not what it appeared at first sight to the average fan.
The key to understanding the infield fly rule is to understand what it’s for: preventing the defense from using multiple force plays to turn a double (or triple!) play in the situation when there is an easily catchable pop-up on the infield; fielders cannot let the ball drop and then start throwing to the bases ahead of the runners to get multiple force outs. So right away you can understand, the rule only comes into play when there are fewer than two outs.
Also, to make a double play on a pop-up, there would need to be multiple runners to force out, since the batter would be presumed to run hard to first (this rule was not written with Raffy Devers in mind), so it also only applies if there are runners on first and second or the bases are loaded. I recently heard this described more simply: when there is a force play at third base.
The whole force play status would be moot on a foul ball, so this rule also applies only to a fair ball.
As you might also guess from the name of the rule, the batted ball is supposed to be a fly ball on the infield, although ‘infield’ is at the discretion of the umpire here; it is not defined by the area of the infield grass or dirt. Also it is not strictly necessary for an infielder to make the play — an outfielder can also make a play on the ball — so long as an infielder could equally have had a play; the pitcher or catcher also counts as an infielder here.
Have I given you all the conditions for this rule? No! The infield fly needs to be called by one of the umpires, who will signal it and call it out as ‘Infield fly!’ when the ball is up in the air. If the ball isn’t clearly going to be fair, the ump will say, ‘Infield fly, if fair!’ in a strong, stentorian voice.
And now to the effect of this call: first of all, if it’s foul, it’s just a plain foul ball and the rule doesn’t apply. But otherwise, once it’s determined to be a fair ball, the batter is out, regardless of the fielding of the ball. Runners do not have to reach the next base. If it’s caught, they can try to tag up once the ball is first touched, or if the ball lands uncaught, they can run from their positions on the base-paths. However, there is no force play, so for the defense to retire a runner after the ball lands, they will need to tag the runner.
Coming back to the Red Sox game from Monday: the home plate umpire called the infield fly rule when the ball was popped up. When the ball came down fair, the batter was instantly out. For Wong to throw to third was the correct play because that base runner was headed to third. Story made a wrong play: he only touched third with his foot when he caught the ball, as if executing a force play. He could have easily tagged the base runner heading to third base but he did not, despite the insistent ‘Tag him!’ cries that I’m 100% sure Jason Varitek must have been yelling from the dugout. However, Story’s throw to second was the next-best idea, and it did lead to a second out, as Campbell both touched the second base bag AND tagged the runner approaching it. It was the tag that created the second out.
So at least three players on the play screwed up to some degree: Trevor Story and both the Tampa Bay baserunners, who should have held their bases. I don’t want to be too critical of Trevor Story, he takes a lot of abuse that he doesn’t always deserve. On the unexpected drop, he needs to act swiftly, he’s already out of position manning third, his baseball muscle memory is telling him to react to the oncoming baserunner like it’s a ground ball DP opportunity, and ultimately he made a strong and accurate throw to second. I’m going to freely call out the bonehead plays of the Rays players, who were Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda, running headlong and not even sliding. Marcelo Mayer not executing the catch might have been ungraceful, but wasn’t a mental or statistical error.
It was helpful to have an umpire with a microphone. While he would generally use the mic to announce info about appeal plays, here he could use it to explain to everyone how the infield fly rule had worked out on the last play. And that settled that.
What about this, can you get an RBI when you as a batter are out because of the infield fly rule? What a great question! The answer is: I don’t know! You’d think not, but since the baserunners can advance, and even score, would the run get credited to the batter in the form of an RBI? We might have to wait for that one to happen in order to find out.
Maybe a better question is, do we even need the infield fly rule? Would it be more fun for the fans to see infielders deciding ‘on the fly’ whether to let a ball drop to try and turn a double play, but bringing the risk of messing it up? Despite what my daughters might think, I don’t have a strong opinion about that either. [Edit from Juliet: I think he does.] As satisfying as it is to be “in the know” when infield fly situations crop up, I don’t think baseball would be any less enjoyable without this still-obscure rule. But as long as it sticks around, I suggest we all learn it. So re-read this article five times until you really understand everything.
Happy Father’s Day.