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From: jcg@cbosgd.UUCP (Jim Grams)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Scoring Questions
Message-ID: <1286@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 10:44:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1286
Posted: Fri Jun 28 10:44:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Jun-85 03:29:24 EDT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh
Lines: 45

Scoring, like umpiring, isn't always as easy as it looks.

The first case you mention is an odd one.  It assumes an infield pop
that doesn't get called for the infield-fly rule, which implies it
does not look like a routine out.  I see at least two ways that this
is likely to occur, and the scoring for them might be different.

1A) Batter hits a soft, low pop to the left (or right) of an infielder
    who races over and tries to grab it.  He drops it, then picks it
    up and throws errantly to second.  Runners are all safe and stand
    at first and second.  I would score this a fielder's choice, runner
    safe at second on the throwing error.  The drop of the pop is not
    necessarily an error, because following it, the fielder still had
    a chance to throw out the runner or the batter.

1B) Batter hits a pop fly into the shallow outfield and the infielder
    back-pedals to make the play, but drops the pop.  Picking it up,
    he throws errantly to second and everyone is safe.  I would score
    this batter safe on the dropped pop fly error, runner advancing
    to second.

The first case is more reasonable, and one could score the second
example that way too, but it would be peculiar.  The whole situation is
different, however, if the runner going to second continues on to
third.  In that case, the scorer must account for why the runner
is on third and could rule a second error on the play.  In that case,
the more likely scoring would be batter safe on dropped fly error,
runner moves to second and moves on to third on the throwing error.
The way the situation was posed, however, the runner did not advance,
and the scorer does not need to assess a second error.

The second case proposed is more clear-cut.  On the potential 5-4-3
double play with the 1st baseman pulled off the bag, or missing
the bag (or tag) no error would ever be assessed.  You can never
presume the double play, so this would simply be scored a fielder's
choice 5-4.  A thorough manager, however, would assess the first
baseman with a mental error and probably watch him closely the next
day during infield drills.

You asked for no guesses or opinions, which is difficult, as scoring
gets pretty subjective sometimes.  I invite further discussion of
either case though.

Jim Grams
cbosgd!jcg