The Infield Fly Rule

My Dad once told me that when he was confronted with some know-it-all blowhard, he would ask him to explain the infield fly rule, and that usually brought the bigmouth to his knees. I thought of this while watching the Pirates play the Yankees in a Grapefruit League game on TV this past Saturday.

The Yanks had runners on first and second with one out when the batter lifted a high pop-up (dare I call it a home run in an elevator shaft?) between home and third. The plate umpire immediately raised his hand signalling that the infield fly rule was in effect. Catcher Jason Jaramillo circled under the ball but the wind caught it, moved it out of Jaramillio's reach and it landed in fair territory, where Jaramillio routinely picked it up. The Yankee base runner on second, I forget who it was, seeing the ball land in fair territory then took off for third. So, a demerit for the Yank base runner on this one. Jaramillio then threw to Pedro Alvarez who had the presence of mind to tag the base runner for an inning ending double play. However, Pedro and several of his teammates apparently didn't realize that the inning was over as they returned to their positions. The TV camera only showed Alvarez and Ronny Cedeno retreat to their positions, so I don't know if any of the other Bucs stayed in place or began the trot to the dugout. Demerits to Alvarez and Cedeno. The umpires had to tell Alvarez and Cedeno that the inning was, indeed, over.

I am guessing that Joe Girardi and Clint Hurdle didn't spend a lot of time going over the infield fly rule during spring training. I am guessing that they just assumed that the players would know this rule by the time they got to a major league spring training camp.

Never assume, I suppose.