How not to field a ball as a catcher

[ashbury]

Here's an interesting video of a mistake made by the Red Sox catcher yesterday. The little grimace on his face when the umpire makes the call tells it all: "Oops. I knew that."

 

https://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2018/05/02/1996729983/1525229320040/asset_1800K.mp4

 

Very alert camera work, and kudos to the technical director in the booth for cutting to it, if this was what went to the broadcast. You don't get many of those in a year.

[gunnarthor]

Yeah, that's pretty rare. I saw something like that half a dozen years ago where (I think it was a Molina) used his mask to tug the ball back to him to try and throw out a base stealer. Until then, I didn't know a catcher couldn't do that.

[Oxtung]

I didn't know they couldn't do that. Seems kind of dumb in this particular case. He didn't gain any kind of competitive advantage from it. Frankly I'm struggling to come up with a case where touching the ball with your equipment intentionally would  create a competitive advantage.

 

Maybe if you threw the mask in the air to knock down a foul ball and prevent it from landing in the stands, then proceeded to make the catch for an out. That seems pretty far fetched though. 

 

Does anyone know what the precedent here is? 

[Oldgoat_MN]

So if a fielder were to catch a popup with his hat that would be illegal?

I suppose so, or players would do it from time to time.

As a former catcher, I'm surprised I was unaware of this rule.

[David HK]

Cool video.

 

I thought it was gonna be about Garver, though, for some reason.....

[David HK]

 

I didn't know they couldn't do that. Seems kind of dumb in this particular case. He didn't gain any kind of competitive advantage from it. Frankly I'm struggling to come up with a case where touching the ball with your equipment intentionally would  create a competitive advantage.

 

Maybe if you threw the mask in the air to knock down a foul ball and prevent it from landing in the stands, then proceeded to make the catch for an out. That seems pretty far fetched though. 

 

Does anyone know what the precedent here is? 

Heh.... I hope catching one off the cup doesn't count.  

 

I used to play 3rd that way...

[nicksaviking]

So if a fielder were to catch a popup with his hat that would be illegal?.

I heard Paul O'Niell was forced to do that in exchange for retrieving George Steinbrenner's birthday card once.

[gil4]

 

So if a fielder were to catch a popup with his hat that would be illegal?

I suppose so, or players would do it from time to time.

As a former catcher, I'm surprised I was unaware of this rule.

This was used as a review in one of the umpiring forums I'm in. In NFHS rules, using detached equipment is two bases on a pitch or thrown ball, three bases on a batted ball.  MLB rules are different - the 1-base award in the video was correct. I think on a batted batted ball it's two bases, but I'm not sure.   

[gunnarthor]

 

I didn't know they couldn't do that. Seems kind of dumb in this particular case. He didn't gain any kind of competitive advantage from it. Frankly I'm struggling to come up with a case where touching the ball with your equipment intentionally would  create a competitive advantage.

 

Maybe if you threw the mask in the air to knock down a foul ball and prevent it from landing in the stands, then proceeded to make the catch for an out. That seems pretty far fetched though. 

 

Does anyone know what the precedent here is? 

Sure, in the play I saw, the ball was out of the range of Molina'a range but he used his mask to pull in back to him so he could try and make a play.

 

Not quite the same thing but this has video of Andrus throwing his glove at a ball above his head. Also against the rules.

 

https://www.mlb.com/news/elvis-andrus-throws-glove-at-ball-keys-rally/c-138780530