Point

Point to all fly balls.  You never know when a teammate will need that help.

A simple tip for everyone in the infield that can go a long way is to point to all fly balls off the bat.  If you pay attention to MLB games, you’ll see this quite a bit.  A ball is hit high and deep into the outfield and everyone in the infield points to the ball.  Even the pitcher.  Of course, this is done to help anyone who did not get a good read on the ball coming off the bat.  There are always times when a ball will get lost in the sea of white t-shirts or rally towels in the crowd.  Many fields at the amateur level do not have very good (dark) backgrounds behind the plate which would provide a good contrast to the white ball.  It could also simply be a case where a fielder just blinks at contact and doesn’t see the ball come off the bat well.  


Regardless of the reason for not picking up the ball, everyone in the infield should point to fly balls in order to help their teammates find the ball more easily.  If the fielder does not see the ball, he can just look at everyone’s arm and follow them right up to where the ball is.  Of course, if the fly ball is hit and a fielder has to go for the ball, he would not be expected to point to the ball as he runs.  This would slow him down.  Everyone else not involved in the play should though.


You never know when a fielder may need this kind of help so everyone in the infield should get into the habit of pointing every time.