Expert: Tom Schott - 5/30/2006

Question
Tom,

This is a scorekeeping question.  With a man on first, hitter rolls a ground ball into the hole at short.  Shortstop backhands, glances at 2nd and has no play so he throws to first.  Runner beats the throw.  Had SS thrown directly to first without looking at 2B he probably gets his man.  Is this an infield hit in MLB or is it scored a Fielder's choice?  Further, what if the SS goes as far as pump throwing to 2B (never actually throwing the ball) and then goes to 1B too late.  Is this scored the same as the SS merely looking at 2B?  I cannot find this answer anywhere and other people I have asked are just guessing.

Thanks in advance.

Jason

Answer
Jason,

  It would be scored as a hit in either case. To be scored a fielder's choice, there has to be an out made. That's not the case here. It doesn't really matter what the shortstop's body language is. The only other conceivable outcome would be to score this an error on the shortstop, E6. But he fielded the ball cleanly and threw accurately . . . where's the error? Mental errors, as we all know, don't get recorded.

  Hope this helps.

Tom