What is the infield fly rule in baseball?
Turns out, there was no need to adopt the infield fly rule, if the offense was as sly as the defense was. All runners would immediately return to their bases. The batter would immediately take off for first, and then turn toward second base. In the process, he would, of course, pass the runner who stayed at first. By rule, the batter is immediately out for passing a runner who should be ahead of him. Also by rule, this removes the force on the other runners, making it impossible to turn a double or triple play (so long as the runners remain on their respective bases). This would have exactly the same effect as an infield fly rule, right down to the irrelevance of whether the ball is actually caught or not. So, the infield fly rule is not necessary.
