What Is an Error in Baseball?

Can you answer, what is an error in baseball? How does an error affect a player's record?

An error is when one of the fielders misplays a hit ball in such a way that it results in the batter or a runner reaching more bases than he should have reached if the ball had been played reasonably. An error is a judgment call, made by the official and therefore subjective in nature. In most situations when an error is called, the hit does not get recorded as a hit and, if a run scores as a result of that play, the batter is not credited with an RBI.

Baseball Error Examples
Typical examples of errors are the following: dropping a fly ball that should have been an easy catch, overthrowing the ball to a basemen, not catching a playable throw from a fielder, not covering a base adequately or missing a ground ball.

Baseball Error Exceptions
If the official believes the hitter would have reached first base but actually made it to second or third base because of the fielder's error, the play is still recorded as a hit, but it also recorded as an error. In this situation, both a hit and an error are attributed to the same play, with the error following the hit.

Passed balls and wild pitches are never considered errors. They are recorded in a different category.

What Is the Significance of Errors?
From a statistical standpoint, errors are used to calculating a fielder's skill or effectiveness. When a fielder is being evaluated, the number of errors on his record is part of the calculation used to access is ability and worth. From a game play standpoint, an error can turn around a game, essentially extending play when a team's time in the field should have already come to an end.

Interesting Baseball Error Facts

• Dummy Hoy holds the record for the most errors.
• The longest game every played without an error committed by the outfield was played by Walton Cruise, Les Mann and Ray Powell in May 1, 1920. This outfield team played 26 innings without a single error called.
• Darren Lewis holds the record for playing the most career games without an error. The then San Francisco outfielder played 369 consecutive games without an error, a streak that began July 13, 1991 and ended June 29, 1994. Fittingly, Lewis was awarded a Gold Glove Award after the 1994 season.