http://www.tommcmahon.net/2008/08/in-baseball-its.html
[quote=]In Baseball, It's Not Enough For A Fielder To Catch The Ball. He Also Must Effect A Voluntary And Intentional Release Of The Ball
From Rich Marazzi in Baseball Digest:
When determining a catch of batted or thrown balls to record a putout, the fielder must have secure possession of the ball and the release of the ball must be "voluntary and intentional" (2.00). What is that all about?
Umpire Jim Evans explained, "So many people interpret release as something you do with the throwing arm, but in order to get possession of the ball in your throwing hand, you have to release it from the glove." Therefore it appears that slight movement of the glove hand might be all that is necessary to meet the voluntary release requirement as tong as a fielder has control of the ball. ...
Consider the following play that occurred on September 25, 1989, at Montreal where the Expos hosted the Cubs. In the top of the seventh inning, Andre Dawson of the Cubs hit a fly ball to left center that appeared to be caught by Dave Martinez.
The Expos' flychaser fell to the ground after making the catch and despite having the ball in his possession for up to five seconds, Martinez let it roll away and umpire Paul Runge ruled "no catch." Montreal outfielder Tim Raines picked up the ball and retrieved it while Dawson was circling the bases en route to an inside-the-park home run.
There is no doubt that Martinez satisfied the secure possession part of the rule, but since he fell down and dropped the ball despite holding on to it for five seconds, it was not ruled a legal catch because he was unable to voluntarily release the ball.
Oddly enough if Raines was able to take the ball out of Martinez's glove before it rolled away, that would have satisfied the voluntary release aspect of the rule.
Veteran umpire Joe Brinkman said, "We teach the students at my umpires' school that if you see a ball is in a (injured or fallen) player's glove, tell his teammate to pick the ball out of his glove."
I saw this play on TV and remembered it all these years because it was so odd. [quote=]
So I went back and looked at the play and after catching it Fowler falls to the ground and and keeps the ball in his glove for along time while rolling around on the ground. His teammates never take the ball out of his hand. Finally as he is getting up it looks like the ball just drops out of his glove then he drops his glove to the ground.
So my question is should this weird rule have applied today and more importantly did Soriano run it out all the way through home?
They didn't show it but my guess is that Soriano just walked back to the dugout rendering the rule moot.
I know since the beginning, I was yelling at the TV "Keep running! Keep running!"
Thoughts?
