I’ve always been fascinated by the infield fly rule in baseball. It’s a unique rule that’s not found in any other sport, and it’s often misunderstood by fans and players alike. So I wanted to write this article to answer a question a lot of baseball fans have about the rule – why is there an infield fly rule?
The infield fly rule exists to prevent the defense from turning easy double plays and triple plays. Without an infield fly rule, the defense could intentionally drop a fly ball and turn an easy double play.
Base runners are required to tag up when there are less than two outs and the infield fly rule was created to prevent the defense from taking advantage of the tag-up rule in very specific situations. For the rest of this article, I’ll briefly cover what the infield fly rule is and how it’s enforced to even the playing field.
Article Contents
What is the Infield Fly Rule?
Feel free to read my other article where I dive deeper into what the infield fly rule is, but here’s the shortened version of what the infield fly rule is.
The infield fly rule takes effect when the offense has runners on first and second base, or the bases are loaded. When one of those scenarios is true, the following four things must also be true:
- There are less than two outs
- A fly ball is hit in the infield
- The fly ball is fair
- An infielder can easily catch the fly ball (also referred to as “ordinary effort”)
Whether or not the defense catches the ball, runners are free to advance at their own risk during an infield fly. But runners still need to abide by the tag-up rules.
Understanding the infield fly rule can seem like a lot, but once you understand what the rule is we can dive into why the rules are enforced this way for both softball and baseball games.
3 Reasons Why There is An Infield Fly Rule
I could come up with 3 reasons why the infield fly rule exists, but feel free to contact me if you can think of additional reasons and I can update this article.
1) To Prevent Easy Double Plays
Imagine this scenario – there is one out, the offense has runners on first and second base, and the batter hits a high fly ball to the third baseman.
The tag-up rule forces the runners to stay on their base, which means base runners have a long way to go if they want to advance to the next base.
If the infield fly rule didn’t exist, the third baseman would intentionally drop the ball, step on third base, and make an easy throw to second base.
This would be an easy double play for the defense. And oftentimes, this play would end the inning.
2) To Prevent Easy Triple Plays
In addition to preventing easy double plays, the infield fly rule also prevents the defense from getting an easy triple play.
Imagine this scenario – there are no outs, the bases are loaded, and the batter hits a high-fly ball in front of the pitcher.
The tag-up rule forces the runners to stay on their base, which means every base runner has a long way to go if they want to advance to the next base.
If the infield fly rule didn’t exist, the pitcher could intentionally drop the ball. Then the pitcher would throw to home to get the force out, the catcher would throw it to third base for the second force out, and the third baseman would throw it to second base for the third force out.
There’s not much the offense could do to prevent a triple play in this scenario. Thankfully, the infield fly rule was created so the defense would only get one out instead of three in this scenario.
3) Fairness to the Offense
In general, the infield fly rule exists to promote fairness between the offense and the defense.
There was a time when the infield fly rule didn’t exist and the defense took full advantage of this by intentionally dropping easy fly balls. A lot of fans, players, and coaches complained that this behavior was unsportsmanlike conduct by the defense.
Eventually, baseball created the infield fly rule to promote fairness between the two teams. After all, the defense very clearly had an advantage in dropping easy-to-catch fly balls, which was unfair to the offense.
Brief History of the Infield Fly Rule
The infield fly rule was first introduced in 1895 by the National League and later adopted by the American League in 1904. The rule was created to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping fly balls to get an easy double play.
Before the Infield Fly Rule was introduced, infielders would often let pop-ups drop to the ground to quickly throw the ball to second base and get a force out.
This strategy was often used when there were runners on first and second base and less than two outs. The infielder would let the ball drop, quickly pick it up, and throw it to second base to force out the runner on first. Then, the fielder on second base would throw the ball to first base to get the batter out.
However, this strategy was seen as unsportsmanlike and unfair to the batter. So, the Infield Fly Rule was created to prevent infielders from using this tactic.
The new rule stated that if a fair fly ball is hit to the infield with runners on first and second base, and less than two outs, the batter is automatically out regardless of whether the ball is caught or dropped by an infielder.
This rule has been in place for over a century and has become an integral part of baseball. It ensures the game is played fairly and that all players have an equal chance to succeed.
