[WhatWuzThatBlue]

c) A player batting has little choice as to what to do - after ball 4, they MUST drop the bat and run to the base.

If a legal (RISING) bat is thrown through the air by the only OP allowed to handle it and miraculously contacts the baseball thrown by the catcher afterwards; then the results caused by the OP is ruled INTERFERENCE! The ball is ruled dead, the B/R is OUT, and the R who SCORED returns to 3B.

D) The standards for interfernece ARE NOT much higher, they're totally different. The rulemakers have placed the onus on the OP. The rulemakers have bailed out the DP. The rulemakers have wiped out a RUN.

I'm pretty certain that we've been saying this all along. Intereference is almost always an act by the offense (in Fed it is always called Int. by Offense and Obs. by defense.) After ball four, he is supposed to displace the bat in a legal manner and run to first base. While the original play involved the bat contacting the ball, interference can be called if the action caused the defense to interrupt their playing action.

Thanks for finally reading what we've written for so many pages now. This call is a no brainer - the batter is out and the runner returns to his original base.

By the way, how did they wipe out a run? Are you saying that the runner was on third and stealing home? Why would the catcher throw it when he could just hold it and tag the runner? Thanks for changing the play.