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Had a couple of these in American Legion games last week, both were probably HTBT but still wanted to get some opinions anyway. I'll try to explain them to the best of my ability.
1) R1, 1 out. Ground ball to F6, tosses to F4 for the out at 2B, no chance for double play even though F4 goes ahead and makes the throw, way late. Almost as soon as F4 gets the ball and the runner slides, the defensive coach starts hollering, "He overslid the bag, that's gotta be interference!" Now I know that oversliding the bag, in and of itself, is not interference, BUT one could theoretically interfere because of oversliding the bag. At what point would we say a runner sliding into 2B has interfered by oversliding the bag? (Note: Legion ball uses FPSR similar to NFHS, it may be the exact same thing, not sure.)
I was PU, my partner asked for my help since he was turning with the ball to F3. Around here, they teach us in high school mechanics that PU has the call on the INT at 2B in 2-man. I saw the play but judged that R1 had not interfered because even though there was some contact with F4, the runner had made a legal slide straight into the bag and the contact was on the first-base side of the bag. In other words, the contact was not made BECAUSE he overslid the bag. The coach did not care for my explanation, but he didn't get too upset.
2) R1, R2, 1 out. Ground ball to the left side of the infield. F5 dives for the ball and comes up just short. About that time, R2 and F5 collide. R2 scores easily, but the third-base coach asks why there was no interference. I didn't tell him that the term he was looking for was "obstruction." At what point is the fielder no longer considered to be in the act of fielding a batted ball? And if he dives and misses and the runner makes contact with him just a split-second later, should that be considered obstruction or just a "train wreck"? Since the runner scored easily, it didn't really matter if he had been obstructed in this case. But if he had been thrown out at the plate, there could have been a major argument. And if I had called interference, we might have had an even bigger argument.
Just wanted everyone's thoughts on these plays. Thanks.
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