Watch and listen to the back-and-forth sometime.
Why is it in baseball and girls high-school softball that infielders are those regularly signaling with their fingers and verbally telling outfielders the number of outs during an inning, and not the other way around?
Is it because outfielders are stuck off in that expansive garden so far away from others that they are assumed not capable – or smart enough – to think and count the number of outs on their own? So they have to be constantly reminded.
Or, maybe it’s considered outfielders are off daydreaming out there, another reason for the regular total number of outs reminders.
Outfielders certainly are capable of keeping tabs on the total outs all by their individual selves. It should be insulting to them to constantly be reminded otherwise.
Ever notice that the outfielders rarely give any return acknowledgements to those infielders’ signals, not even with a casual nod or wave of a hand? Maybe that’s their clever way of showing annoyance regarding those signals.
“Hey, put your fingers down. We can count, too,” an outfielder should shout back to an infield teammate one time after they hold up two fingers to indicate there are two outs. Or, out of spite, hold up two fingers themselves while pointing back to the infielders.
Maybe that has happened sometimes. If not, it should.
Interestingly, such signals aren’t seen much in professional baseball. Maybe with so many scoreboards all about, and the players being vastly experienced, knowing the out total is pretty much assumed.
The thing is, the number of outs is often forgotten during games. Usually the infielders are the guilty parties. Sometimes it’s one who just held up a hand signaling the out total to an outfielder.