A deadly game of ball TB Sanhedrin 77

The threshold to be liable for the death penalty is that your direct action causes death. A wicked person can be a murderer but not liable for the death sentence. For example, “Rava says: In a case where one pushed another into the pit and there was a ladder in the pit that would enable him to emerge from it, and another individual came and removed the ladder, or even if the perpetrator himself removed the ladder before the one whom he pushed could emerge, causing him to die of starvation, the perpetrator is exempt from execution. The reason is that at the time that he cast him into the pit, the victim was able to ascend and emerge from the pit. Pushing him into the pit did not cause his death, and the removal of the ladder merely prevented the victim from emerging, but was not an action that directly caused his death.” (TB Sanhedrin 77, Sefaria.org translation)

I wish I understood the ballgame discussed in today’s daf better. Apparently a person threw a rather heavy ball against a wall with the idea that the ball would ricochet back a certain distance to a certain place. The Gemara discusses what happens if the ricocheting ball kills somebody. When does the player need to flee to the city of refuge designated to protect people who accidentally murder somebody and when he is exempt from fleeing?

“Rav Taḥlifa, from the West, Eretz Yisrael, taught this baraita before Rabbi Abbahu: In a case where those who were playing with a ball killed an individual by hitting him with the ball, if the ball struck the individual within four cubits of the one who threw the ball, he is exempt from being exiled, as it was certainly not his intent to throw the ball so short a distance; beyond four cubits, he is liable to be exiled.

“Ravina said to Rav Ashi, questioning this halakha: What are the circumstances? If he was amenable to having the ball travel a short distance, then he should be liable even for a throw less than four cubits. And if he was not amenable to having the ball travel the distance that it traveled, but he wanted it to travel farther, then he should not be liable even for a throw greater than four cubits. In what case is the measure of four cubits significant? Rabbi Abbahu said to him: With regard to ordinary people who play with a ball, the farther they enter and approach the wall, the more amenable they are to the result, as the ball caroms off the wall and rebounds farther. Therefore, presumably their intent was that the ball would travel a distance greater than four cubits.”

“The Gemara questions the principle underlying this halakha. Is that to say that in a case like this, when an item caroms off the wall, the action is considered the result of his force? (if it is, then he would be liable and exiled to the city of refuge.-gg)…When an item caroms off a wall, the action is not generated by the force of his action; therefore, he should not be liable.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Injuries are part and parcel of every type of game. Nevertheless, the player cannot intentionally hurt the opposing team member. There’s a difference in baseball when a pitcher accidentally hits a batter and when he purposely throws at the batters head. A 90 mile per hour or faster fastball can do a lot of damage.

Even in such a brutal sport as football, there are limits or players are allowed to do. Remember The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, colloquially known as "Bountygate", refers to the alleged illegal program in which the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) were claimed to have placed bounties on opposing players. Football Commissioner Robert Goodell responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's history, and among the most severe punishments for in-game misconduct in North American professional sports history.