 Errors are sometimes made to sound more complicated than they actually are, but a lot of that confusion can be eliminated if we just take a few minutes to examine the actual rule. The section in the rule book that discusses errors is a few pages long, so we're not going to be looking at it in any detail, but my goal for this video is to just give a general understanding of what the most common errors are, and I'll attempt to clear up a few misconceptions that people might have about errors. So the rule starts by defining an error as a misplay, which is a fumble, a muff, or a wild throw that prolongs the time at bat of a batter, prolongs the presence on the basis of a runner, or permits a runner to advance one or more bases. We'll break this down further in a second. The other term that is important when looking at errors is ordinary effort, which is defined as the effort that a fielder of average skill at that position in that league or classification of leagues should exhibit on a play. Those two sentences cover the majority of what you need to know about errors. So let's go back to that first one. A misplay is broken down into three parts, a fumble, which is bobbling a ground ball, a muff, which is dropping either a fly ball or a ball that has been thrown to you by another fielder, and a wild throw, which is pretty self-explanatory. Doing any of those three things must then lead to one of the following three things. First, either prolong the time at bat of a batter, prolong the presence on the basis of a runner, or permit a runner to advance one or more bases. This is to say that if there is a ground ball that is hit to the shortstop that he bobbles, or fumbles to use the technical word, but he's still able to pick up the ball and throw the batter out at first base, it is not prolonging his time on base, not prolonging his time at bat, and it's not allowing him to advance an extra base. Therefore, even though he bobbled the ball, it is not an error. If the shortstop bobbled the ball and did allow the batter to reach base, that is an error on the shortstop. If he fielded the ball cleanly and threw it to the first baseman who dropped the throw, that's an error on the first baseman. Or if the shortstop threw the ball over the first baseman's head, you guessed it, also an error on the shortstop. All three of those situations are permitting the runner to advance to a base he would not have reached if the fielder's had merely been able to demonstrate the skill of an average fielder. That kind of error can also happen in conjunction with a hit. So if a batter hits a ball into the outfield and when the left fielder goes to throw the ball back into the infield, he throws it over everybody's head and the batter then runs to second base. He would have reached first base on the single but moved to second base on the error of the left fielder. The error that prolongs the time at bat is one that will happen rarely. Say a batter pops up a ball into foul territory that is very close to either the catcher or the first baseman and that he should be able to catch using ordinary effort but he drops the ball. This would be a foul ball but it would not be an out and the batter's time at bat has been prolonged even though he should probably be out, thus the error even if he did not reach base. That actually makes a pretty good trivia question because it's possible for this type of error to occur and still keep a perfect game intact because nobody has reached base. Who is it that gets to decide whether something is an error or not of whether someone is using ordinary effort would have made the player not? This is the job of the official score who records everything that happens in the game. It is a judgment call so you might disagree with the decision but keep in mind that the score will have a different and possibly a better angle than you on the play especially if it's not a televised game with the opportunity to watch the replay and while it may affect a player's stats whether something is called hit or an error will have no effect of what is happening in the game itself. The runner will still reach base no matter how the score classifies the play. Finally let's look at a few misconceptions that surround errors. The first is if the ball touches or hits the defensive player's glove it is an error. It actually has nothing to do with that at all. For one example if an outfielder runs a very long way and dives and attempt to catch a fly ball but the ball tips off the end of his glove and bounces away he is most definitely gone beyond the ordinary effort that is expected of him and therefore this would be a base hit rather than an error. The rulebook even tells us that if a play is right on the line between a hit or an error give the batter the benefit of the doubt and award the hit. If a fielder has obviously lost the ball in the sun for example the batter is generally awarded a hit. You should always keep the rule in mind but if a player does miss a ball maybe ask yourself if he had made that play would I have thought wow that was a great play. If so it probably would not be an error. The rules are not holding players to such a high standard that they are expected to make great plays only that they be an average fielder. Another area of confusion is that mental errors are errors. This is only sometimes the case there must be a physical misplay in order for there to be an error a fumble a muff or a poor throw. Mental errors like throwing to one base rather than another are not completing a play because a fielder has lost track of how many outs there are are not errors unless it leads to something physical. So I saw a situation at a game once where the catcher caught strike three and thinking there were three outs he rolled the ball back to the mound and started jogging off to the dugout. What he didn't realize is that it was only the second out of the inning and the runner on third base was able to run home and score while the pitchers stood on the mound dumbstruck and help us to make any play. So for the catcher it was a mental error to lose track of how many outs there were but it was only his physical action of rolling the ball back to the mound that made me charge him with an error for the advancement of that runner from third base to home plate. So the next time you find yourself wondering if there was an error on the play remember the elements of ordinary effort of a fumble a muff or a bad throw and if there was one of those that extended the time at bat or on the basis for a player or he was allowed to move up a base there probably was an error on the play.