[Jim Porter]

Max,

I know it doesn't seem like he assisted the runner, but he did.

Look at the elements involved - - the coach moved down the line, into the runner's projected path, to stop his player from advancing home. Did he physically assist the runner to achieve this goal? Did he physically keep the runner from advancing to home?

Sure he did. And he did it by moving down the line and into the runner's projected path. The coach wanted his runner to stop at third. By getting in the way, he physically assisted the runner. He kept the runner from being thrown out at home, and he got him to return to third safely.

One thing that this case play from Jim Evans taught me is that there's more than one way for a base coach to physically assist a runner. A coach doesn't necessarily have to reach out and grab or push a runner for him to be guilty of physically assisting him.

It is not only the actions of the coach that we should consider with coach's interference. It is the coach's actions coupled with the results of the coach's actions on the runner, and the results of both of these on the play.