- Aug 6, 2013
- 392
- 63
While one player can stay on their feet to try and make the play they could still miss it and would be charged an error but another player who doesn't have the speed on their feet may chose to dive in which case they would not get an error, however the play distance could be the same.
That is why I responded enquiring to your post in the other thread
This is not entirely true. Just because a player stays on their feet because they are faster doesn't mean it is automatically an error if the play isn't made. Again we are still looking at extraordinary effort of ALL players - not just the one based on how fast they are. If there is a hard hit ball straight up the middle and the SS hauls rear over to get it and is fast and doesn't have to dive but the ball glances off her glove I'm not scoring that an error. That is beyond ordinary effort to field a ball. Ordinary effort is just that - ordinary. If someone has to make a Herculean effort to get the ball then that is not ordinary.
Now the caveat definitely is how hard the ball is hit as well. I was watching the Jax/Florida game last night and a fairly soft/regular hit ball bounced just on the SS side of 2nd and the SS was there in time to field it. The ball hit her glove and bounced out. That was an error. It took the scorers a minute to come to that conclusion because I'm sure they were discussing the play parameters but in the end the ball wasn't hit with the force that would make that play extraordinary. That is why I always like to have another person around me so we can discuss plays that I am unsure of - getting other people's judgement helps in those situations.