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Avoid the Sac Fly Walk Off
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Guest Tony C.
Situation: Runner on third, less than two outs, any sac fly situation applies but lets consider bottom of the 9th in a tie game for the sake of argument. The batter hits a fly ball to any of the outfielders that's too deep to throw the runner out once they tag. Due to the tie game in the 9th, the runner at third is gearing up to tag and score the winning run. What if, the outfielder purposefully bobbles the ball or lets it pop up into the air after it hits their glove before they catch it? The runner will take off as soon as the ball hits the glove but they would be leaving early since the ball was bobbled or popped into the air. At that point, the runner would have to go back and re-tag third in order to run home, giving the outfielder enough time (theoretically) to throw them out at the plate. If they don't re-tag, you could appeal that they left early. Or they would simply go back to third and there would be two outs with a runner on third and that eliminates the possibility of a sac fly. Could this work if the outfielder was able to control it off the bobble and get it to the plate in time?
In a tie game, it wouldn't necessarily matter if you drop the ball when trying to pop it into the air because the runner would score if you caught it anyway assuming it was deep enough.
This quarantine got me thinking outside the box.
Thanks - TC
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Senor Azul
Tony C., what all the others have told you is correct because it is actually in the rule book (bold emphasis added)— 2019 OBR Definitions of Terms (Catch) Comment: A catch is legal if the ball is
yawetag
In fairness, it's not illegal for an outfielder to do this. It's just not going to end up the way he thought it would.
Senor Azul
As I posted 10 days ago, the rule allowing runners to advance on caught fly balls as soon as the fielder touched the ball entered the rule book in 1920. Here’s what the actual rule was in 1864--
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