What is the infield fly rule of FIRST?

[Joe Johnson]

The 10 point balls are confusing to my mom and my execs that attend.

It was not until after a competition was nearly over that many people realize that the balls are only worth 10 point if you GRAB THEM, GIVE THEM TO A HUMAN, AND THEN THEY SHOOT THEM IN A GOAL.

The first words out of a their mouth, almost without fail, after learning of the true rule, is, "That's silly"

I tend to agree. While it did give teams some incentive to get the ball, it was such a small POTENTIAL bonus, it was never going to be very likely. As such, it was a net negative to the game because it confuses the casual observer.

I think either the balls should have been worth points to knock off OR they should not have been balls at all.

But, this is all small potatoes, this year's game is worth watching. I think the playoffs between the divisions will be insanely exciting this year. I am hopeful that this is the year we catch the eye of TV. This year's elimination rounds and playoffs may well be the spark that lights the fire.

Time will tell.

Joe J.

[nickma]

Many of you are describing the scoring system as the infield fly rule but that not what it is. The easiest was to describe and compare the scoring to this year’s game is how professional hockey standings and soccer standings are figured out. In each case you get so many points for a win and so many for a tie. After that if teams are tied a pre established list of tie breakers are used to determine a high seed.

The Infield fly rule is a rule that, no one but the officials really understand. Here is a great example for a game last year. The bases were loaded and there was one out. The batter hit a pop up to the infield and he was called out by the infield fly rule. The fielder dropped the ball and the player at third ran home. The fielder threw the ball to the plate and the catcher touched home plate, however there is no force on anymore so he was not called out. The runner walked around the catcher touched the plate and the ump indicated that he was safe. The catcher had no idea what just happened.

In this years game a great example of that is teams that are no touching the ground but then aren't given credit for the hanging points. I have seen a number of times this year were a team will be off the platform but will not be given the points because they are using of used the vertical bars to get up of help stay up. Its had to explain to someone that if those bars were not there would the robot still be able to hang. Anyone at BAE saw this happen when 319 was hanging upside down but resting on the vertical bar. The refs concluded that if that bar was not there it would have sagged and touched the platform.

Those are my opinions. I will say that the rules to this years game were very well written and props need to be given to that.

[Lil' Lavery]

I agree, the bar is the infield fly rule this year. Its purely a judges call in about half of the situations. The QP's are confusing at first, but after a couple matces it makes perfect sense, or if your a hockey or soccer fan. Well, if you count all the rules about what can and cant go on the robot ect., there are more infield fly rules, but thats not an aspect of the GAME itself.