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Originally Posted by mcrowder
WMB - it's been posted to twice and directed to once. Why is this hard?
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Good question. I believe that it is hard because nobody that has responded so far has been able to look past one single sentence in a rulebook of thousands of words. No one seems to be able to conceptually look at the big picture and come up with an interpretation to satisfy conflicting rules and statements.
No. 1 – we have a batted ground ball rolling outside the 3B foul line. Without it touching anything, or being touched by anyone, it rolls and comes to rest in fair territory before 3B.
By definition, that is a fair ball.
No. 2 – no you say, it is a foul ball because one of the definitions of a foul ball is interference on a defender attempting to field a batted ball over foul territory.
No. 3 – if you call interference, then the penalty for interference is someone is going to be called out. (ASA 8-7 J-P). In fact, if we have a fly ball over foul territory, two players are called out. However, 8-7.J.1 specifically states that an out is called when a defender is attempting to field a batted FAIR ball. So we have no rule to call an out. In fact, we don’t have a rule to call interference.
No. 4 – let’s check the definition of interference. Yes, it does say that INT if hindering a defensive player attempting to
execute a play. Most of you, in the past, have defined a
play as an attempt to get an OUT. So what kind of an out are we going to get when the ball is on the ground in foul territory.
No. 5 – for you to claim interference, you have to believe that attempting to field a ball in foul territory is making a play. You have to believe that it is a legitimate play for a defender to touch a ball in foul territory to kill the play, because the defender does not have an opportunity to get an out on the B-R or any other runners. If the defender thought otherwise, then she would let the ball roll fair for an opportunity to get an out.
Which brings me back to my original question.
Is attempting to trap a ball foul to prevent runners from advancing a legitimate attempt to make a play?
If yes, then call interference and call the runner out and call a strike on the batter.
If no, then you can’t call interference; you don’t have a foul ball; and you have an unhappy defense when the ball rolls fair.
When you get through working this out, see if your answer would be the same if the batter bunted down the 1B line and interfered with the pitcher attempting to field (?) touch (?) the ball which is still in foul territory?
WMB