AND the dog appears to be a yellow Lab!

No. I posted the rule above. Simply standing there and letting the ball intentionally hit off the back of the glove will still be called an intentionally dropped line drive by any competent umpire. The examples you gave of players “knocking down” line drives to prevent extra bases are never done to set up a double…

“The rules don’t prohibit knocking down a line drive, they prohibit purposefully dropping a catchable ball.”

Untrue. The rule makes no such distinction. Here is the rule:

Right. If you are tagged while still being forced, you are out -- even if you are are still standing on your original bag. But A-Gonz would not have been tagged before Russell received the throw at 2nd base.

And here’s another example of a player attempting to make a similar play — but couldn’t since the ball was hit too hard.

You’re buying into a false narrative, likely created because most baseball players really aren’t too swift. This play has happened many times, including just last year (see below). It’s just a heads-up play.

“If.” But that’s not what Russell would have done, judging by the fact that Russell was looking to immediately throw the ball to first base.

But that’s not what Russell was even thinking of doing. All he was doing was trying to get the force out at second by catching Baez’ throw. A-Gonz is safe easily if he returns to second base.

Not exactly. You don’t have to leave the base immediately when you are forced.

Check this play out. The runner on second base did exactly the right thing at the beginning of the play by not moving — and he was ruled safe. (Only later during the play did he run, when the other runner — who was already out — kept…

“Runner on first” is a common misconception. There actually must be runners on at least first and second bases, with fewer than two outs, for an infield fly to be a consideration.

And it’s a very imporant rule. The defense should never be able to intentionally drop an easy pop-fly to turn a double or triple play.

 It wasn’t. It was mediocre baserunning by A-Gonz.

BINGO. A-Gonz could have prevented the DP easily by returning to second base. But doing so is not an intuitive choice for a baserunner in that situation.

He couldn’t double either of them up by catching the ball on the fly because A-Gonz was already running back to second and Rizzo was too far from first base to field a throw from Baez.

A player cannot purposely knock down a line drive. That is considered an intentionally dropped ball, by rule. The batter is out, all runenrs return to their bases, and the ball is dead. (This is not the same as the infield-fly rule, where the ball is still live.)

BTW, you’re over-thinking Baez’ play. A soft, dying…

Gonzalez made a mistake. He should have continued back to second base when he saw the ball being thrown that way. The force play would have been off and he would have been safe.

“Runner on first” is not the infield fly rule.

Why? So infielders can drop easy pop flies and create double and triple plays that they don’t deserve?

This is article is hype.

This wasn’t a “genius” play in any way. It was the RIGHT play to make — nothing more.

There was almost no risk in letting the ball short hop because he would get at least one out with the force at second.

If A-Gonz had been a bit more clever, he would have slid back into second base to…

Because he reaction was warranted?

Seriously, refs rarely throw flags on coaches in the NFL.

THIS.

You totally exposed Emma’s utter lack of understanding of baseball strategy. Or maybe Emma is smarter than all of us and intentionally posted a ridiculously poor take in order to generate this very discussion.