Re ambi infielder

[Guest Peter Huang]

Situation: 

an ambidextrous first baseman chooses to field as righty thrower if he has to runners on second or third to facilitate throwing to third or home. But as lefty with two outs or with no runners or runner or second for easier throw to second. 

Situation. Less than two outs. Runner on 1st. Ambi first baseman plays as lefty thrower. Runner goes, grounder to first glances off glove behind him. Runner is gonna round second heading to third. First baseman decides to remove glove off right hand as he runs towards the ball, picks up with right barehanded to throw to third to avoid having to spin around as lefty. 

Ump later tells player he cannot remove glove. 

However the removed glove has not made contact with ball. So is there any penalty for removing infielders glove during play if contact is not made by loose ball with glove?

similarly. Can an ambi pitcher execute pickoff to second with stepoff as lefty pitcher on mound but throw to second with right? Or vice versa..

[Replacematt]

Short answer...

As long as the fielder does not intentionally contact the ball with the glove removed from its proper place on his body, there is no infraction.

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, Guest Peter Huang said:

However the removed glove has not made contact with ball. So is there any penalty for removing infielders glove during play if contact is not made by loose ball with glove?

similarly. Can an ambi pitcher execute pickoff to second with stepoff as lefty pitcher on mound but throw to second with right? Or vice versa..

1) Umpire was wrong. He fell for the "if it looks weird, it must be illegal" myth.

 

2). Pitcher must declare "RH" or "LH".  That governs the rest of the actions.  (Placing the glove on the appropriate hand suffices as a declaration.)

 

[pnewton]

9 hours ago, noumpere said:

1) Umpire was wrong. He fell for the "if it looks weird, it must be illegal" myth.

 

2). Pitcher must declare "RH" or "LH".  That governs the rest of the actions.  (Placing the glove on the appropriate hand suffices as a declaration.)

 

Agree on #1.

For #2 the O.P. indicates a step off, after that I believe the pitcher, now acting as an infielder, could change hands to make a play just as any other infielder.

[noumpere]

46 minutes ago, pnewton said:

Agree on #1.

For #2 the O.P. indicates a step off, after that I believe the pitcher, now acting as an infielder, could change hands to make a play just as any other infielder.

I agree with your interp of #2, if that';s what happened.  The question wasn't really clear to me -- maybe he meant, "the pitcher was acting like a LH pitcher, but the glove was on the left hand" -- so my answer was more generic.

[isired]

I interpret the rules re: ambi pitching to govern the pitcher's delivery to the batter, nothing else. A pitcher, or infielder or anyone else for that matter, can throw, kick, head or chest the ball in order to make a play, as long as they don't break any of the other rules (like removing their glove and using it to stop or direct a live ball)

[udbrky]

Should ask that ump if he ever saw Jim Abbott pitch. Or that pickoff attempt in NCAA last year.