There’s one out with a men on second and third. It’s the bottom of the ninth and the score is tied. The batter hits a deep flyball. The outfielder can easily catch the ball for the second out but doesn’t. Instead he intentionally lets the ball hit the ground in front of him.

Your challenge for this week’s Micro Softy is to explain why the outfielder might do this.

And now here’s the solution to last week’s Micro Softy 46:    Three loving brothers from New York State

You will recall that Mario, the single brother who lives in Brooklyn, goes to visit his brothers, Luigi and Bob, who live in Schenectady and Buffalo, respectively. Every Saturday, he takes an Uber with a ride-share option from his home in Brooklyn to Grand Central Station, where he catches a train. He leaves the exact destination to chance based on which train is departing next. Trains to Schenectady and Buffalo leave every 12 minutes, with the train to Buffalo leaving two minutes later. After a year, Bob notices that Mario visits Luigi about five times more often than him, despite the random nature of his travel plans. Why?

Although trains leave to the two cities every 12 minutes, the train to Buffalo always leaves two minutes after the train to Schenectady. Thus, when arriving at a random time, Mario has five times the chance to get the train to Schenectady and thus visit Luigi. That’s why he visits Luigi about five times as much as he does Bob.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 46: Three loving brothers in New York State. Why did Mario, who was just trying to economize on Uber trips, end up visiting Luigi five times as often as he visited Bob? A hint for solving Micro Softy 45: Average speed is independent of the distance to the store.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each.You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!