Infield Fly Rule Question

[Mr Umpire]

Well, I can tell you the manuals say "Infield fly. Batter is out." The reason for the extra is to declare who is out and why since it is not one of the more customary ways. Otherwise, you could just say "He's out" and assume everyone knows it is b/c of the infield fly.

When a fly ball is caught, everyone knows who is out. When a runner is tagged, everyone knows who is out. But, when the ball is still 50 feet in the air and all they hear is "Infield fly", who is out? Also, it distinguishes the 2 calls more by saying "Batter's out" vs. "If fair". The purpose is to make the call as clear as possible. And, it is different from the normal course of when runners are called out or at least the most common ways a runner is declared out. B/c we do say (or at least should) things like "Time. That's INT. He's out." Again, it is just to clarify why a runner/batter is out if it does not occur by more customary means.

All I can say is it works for me and it takes 1 to 2 seconds to add it in.

[LMSANS]

I'm just guessing here, but the reason for saying "batter's out", might be because it removes the force. I'm not discounting Andrew's thinking on this.

I do add batter's out because that's how I was taught.