"Baseball Catch Down Third Base Line"
Sports paintings by artist John Robertson
48" x 84" (4 feet by 7 1/2 feet) acrylic on
unstretched canvas
Catching a throw-out from a fielder is easy – but a baseball
catch on a line drive down the third base line is hard. But it looks easy from
the stands - and artistic with the baseball player’s body laid nearly parallel
with the ground and across the infield. Most batters think that when they hit a
line drive it is good for a base and sometimes two. But a good third baseman will break the
batter’s heart with a great catch.
A couple of interesting baseball rules about catching a ball.
Here is an interesting rule in baseball which has to do with
catching a baseball. Players can only
catch the ball with their hand, or their mitt. You can’t use your hat or your
shirt or anything that’s not your bare hand or the mitt. If the ball is caught,
or even touched intentionally, by a player with anything other than their bare
hand or glove, on their hand, all runners, including the batter, get to advance
a base. Now I did see once a play where
the infielder was catching a high fly ball behind a base but in play. The ball his glove and bounced out but he
caught it between his forearm and bicep.
It was ruled a hit and the batter took first base.
Tied into the above rule is one of my favorites, An infield
fly is when a ball stays in the infield that isn't a bunt or line drive. When there are runners on first and second or
first, second, and third and less than two outs the umpire can make the
judgment that an infielder, catcher, or pitcher could catch it with ordinary
effort (whatever that means) the batter is out, even if no one caught it, even
if they did catch it and then dropped it. The ball is still in play so any base
runners who began to advance can still continue and the normal rules apply to
them. Confusing but fair because if they
let it drop there is a good possibility for a double play on the players who
hold their base with anticipation of the ball being caught. If it is dropped then they are stuck on the
base and when advancing can be easily thrown out. This is where the expression “Hung out to dry”
is sometimes used when the player is hung out on the base line waiting for the
bsll to be either csught or dropped. As
an aside the expression comes is based
on the practice of hanging an animal that has been killed in a tree so its meat
can dry. Nice metaphor for a base runner.
