Thank You to lenn

[babywhales]

I just want to thank you for the knowledge passed down from your baseball quizzes .

Last night in the state little league tournament I had a guy on second with 1 out.

Ball was hit to deep center .

Guy on second goes home, batter gets a triple.

Other team starts to appeal, if runner missed third.

Before the pitcher throws  to third , I sent the runner on third home.  The pitcher took the bait , chased him and threw home.

The catcher catches the ball and puts the tag on him, The runner was out. 

The other team then went back and appealed if the original runner touched third.   The umpire called him out .

I stated that the play was relaxed, as such, the appeal had to occur before the next pitch, play or attempted play.
Play was suspended ,The ump called the question into the Indianapolis office.

Ump comes back , declares the original runner out at home and denies the appeal ; as a result, the run stands and we win the game.


A great play I learned from you , it might have taken over a decade to use it but it was awesome.


Thank you
Chris

[LennG]

You are most welcome. 

Glad I helped a bit.

Did the guy really miss 3rd, or you just weren't willing to take that chance?

[babywhales]

Yes he did miss the base.  A less experienced kid on the team who got sloppy in a heated moment.



Ok,
guy on first.  1st baseman lined up two steps behind 1st base and 3 feet off the foul line.

The ball is popped up to first.  The base runner comes off first goes back as he realizes the ball is going to be an out. the runner is about 1 foot or less from first.

the first baseman should not move and would be in perfect position to catch the ball.  He steps forward, with no contact, and realizes the ball is going behind him.  He misses ball, it hits exactly behind him where he was standing and rolls out of bounds just behind first.

the ump calls:
fair ball
runner is out for interference.
Batter is save at first


So I must ask:
1-If the baserunner was moving back to first but was only 1 foot away and moving toward first,  must he get back to first to not get double uped how is this interference? 
2-If the 1st baseman would have never moved he would have been in perfect position and him missing the ball had nothing to do with the runner. how is that interference?
3-Also what if the baserunner was on first, can you be on a base and called for interference?
4- if the baserunner is charged with interference and out, isn't the batter ruled out as well?

[LennG]

A whole lot to talk about here.

According to the rule book the defensive player ALWAYS has the right of way, that is, always has to right to any position to enable him to make a player. It is the offensive players need to get out of his way, ALL THE TIME.

Now, a lot of what you asked and told me is subjective, and one would really have to be there to issue a judgement. Just, for example, a throw that pulls a 1st baseman off the bag INTO the oncoming batter/runner. There is contact but the batter/runner is NOT out as the throw made the 1st baseman make that contact. What MOST umpires call then is incidental contact and the play goes on. So there can be a whole lot of judgement on certain plays, even with contact.

Using you example of a misplayed pop up and the fielder, in an effort to get under the ball after misplaying it, runs into a runner while backing up,  I would call interference, even though the runner did nothing wrong. You have to allow the defensive player to make the play, even if he screwed it up.

Now, getting to what you told me:

It IS a fair ball, having rolled out of fair territory AFTER passing 1st base. Makes no difference where the ball lands, it's where it crosses the foul line. before the base, foul ball, after the base, fair ball. After that, a lot of what you ask is judgement and not a hard and fast rule. It is the way the umpire sees the play in it's entirety. From EXACTLY what you say and how you say it, I would never have ruled any interference if there was no contact. You simply cannot see what is in the minds of the players, to see if they are consciously thinking of getting the upper hand by doing something dishonest. If the runner on 1st was sort of intentionally not going back to his base and subtly trying to distract the fielder, that COULD be interference, but how can an umpire call it? He has no way of knowing what the runner was thinking.

So based on what you told me

Again, the fair ball call was correct and there should not have been any interference called. If the umpire saw something that led him to believe there was offensive interference then the out and the position of the runners was correct. The runner interfered, so he is out and since the ball wasn't caught the batter/runner gets 1st base. You could make an issue for a DP saying the ball should have been caught--so the batter would be out, and then because interference WAS called, you have to penalize the offense for that, so the runner is out also. That would be tough call to sell though. It could be done, but I wouldn't make that call. In the situation you described, I wouldn't have called any interference either.

AND, YES, a runner, standing on his base, CAN be called for interference. If he intentionally interfered with a fielder, interference is obvious. But say he is standing on his base, and there is a high pop up to the 1 st baseman. The runner starts yelling to him to miss it, miss it. You can, and I have called verbal interference on a player for that. AND, if I really wanted to stick it to them, as being so unsportsmanlike, there I do call the DP.

A bit long of an answer, but I hope you get the point.