Baseball's Infield Fly Rule

This is a rule that I know what it is and I understand why it is a rule. I just never figured out the basics of the rules.

The reason why baseball has an infield fly rule is to prevent unfair play that would benefit the defense but not the offense. My understanding of this rule is that if a runner is on base with less than two out and the ball was hit into the air within the infield, the umpire would call the infield fly rule. Why do you ask? Reason for this is to prevent the infield to let the ball drop so they can pick it up, throw the hitter out at first and then tag the runner on base out because the runner shouldn’t be running on a fly ball. It’s an easy double play for the defense. That would be unfair. Hence the rule!

And since I live by Wikipedia, the definition of the Infield Fly Rule is this: The infield fly rule applies only when there are fewer than two outs, and there is a force play at third or home. In these situations, if a fair fly ball is a hit that, in the umpire's judgment, is catchable by an infielder with ordinary effort, the batter is out regardless of whether the ball is actually caught in flight.

So, a runner has to be on first and second base for the rule to go into effect on an infield fly. That I didn’t know.

In a game earlier this year between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals, the rule was applied but the runner on first, Albert Pujols, trotted to second base. Red’s second baseman, Brandon Phillips, caught the ball and then tagged Pujols out because the runner never tagged up at first baseman to advance. They gave an explanation that the runner had the option to go back or go to second but he was tagged out going back to first. So I understood it as the runner could continue or stay where he was. But that wouldn’t make sense since there is a runner on second already and the runner at first would have to stay at first.

I did read that there are miconceptions of the rule and I think this was the case in the Reds/Cardinals game: if an infield fly is not properly caught, no tag up is required and the runners may try to advance. Which is what I think Pujols was trying to do.

That better understand it for me. I’m more aware of this rule now and the next time one is called, I could exlain it to my kids.

If you are interested about this topic and would like to read into it further, go to the wikipedia site. It goes into a definition of an umpire’s “judgement call”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule