The Infield Fly in Atlanta

October 5, 2012, Turner Field, the first National League Wild Card game, and Chipper Jones's last. The Cardinals led 6–3. In the bottom of the eighth, Atlanta had runners on first and second with one out. On a 3-2 pitch from Mitchell Boggs, Andrelton Simmons popped a ball into short left. Shortstop Pete Kozma drifted well onto the grass. Left fielder Matt Holliday came in. Neither caught it.

Left-field umpire Sam Holbrook had invoked the infield fly rule. Simmons was out. The runners stayed at first and second. The ball had landed something like ninety feet beyond the infield dirt. Holbrook said he had seen the shortstop get under it with ordinary effort, which is the rule's actual test: not where the ball lands, but whether an infielder can catch it without undue trouble. Joe Torre, then running baseball operations, denied Atlanta's protest because a judgment call cannot be protested.

Fans threw bottles and cups onto the field. The delay lasted nineteen minutes, and the public address warned that the game could be forfeited. St. Louis won, 6–3, and went on to the World Series. The call could be both legal and absurd to everyone watching it. That is the entry.