Sorry, I don't buy it. I caught for a long time and I never needed a pitcher to point to help me. You don't help a catcher by pointing straight up in the air anyway. You help a catcher verbally when a ball gets by you or if it drops out of your glove and but you think you have it. Your teammates should "First!" or "Third!" or "Back!" to tell you which direction the ball went. When it comes to the catcher, that I know.
Posted on 8/30 8:46 PM | IP: Logged
This is the priority rule for fly balls. If the infield flyball is toward the third base line, then the third basemen has priority. Around homeplate the catcher has priority and first base line the first baseman has priority. We (pitchers) were always taught to point straight up if it was around home plate, thus the catcher immediately knows. Anyone can go after a fly ball in these situations but whomever has the best chance has to call someone off. That's usually whomever thinks they have the best chance yelling out "I got it" three times loudly and the other fielder saying "Take it". We practiced this in college all of the time. Fly ball priority goes through all of the positions.
Anyway, that's what we were taught.
Posted on 9/8 2:49 PM | IP: Logged
Makes sense. Since I never played I was just guessing.
But I've learned that there is not one thing in baseball, written down or not, that is arbitrary.
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