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Old Thu Nov 30, 2006, 06:30pm
greymule greymule is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
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Couldn't the offensive interference be delayed to see if the defense is able to make the play and possibly get additional outs?

That seems fair on the surface, but delaying the offensive interference call could open a can of worms. If we say that after a runner collides with a fielder and the fielder catches the ball, we wave off interference, there are all kinds of things that could happen still related to the contact. What if the fielder manages to catch the ball but then throws it away because of the contact? Even if the fielder is able to make a throw (say, to 1B) to get an out, a runner on 3B might be able to tag and advance because the fielder was knocked off balance.

There are certain times we can waive interference. Batter interferes with F2 but F2 throws the runner out anyway. Runner on 1B brushes F3 just as the batter hits a popup over 1B but long before the ball reaches its apex. But calling interference immediately on runner interfering with a fielder on a batted ball or a throw prevents all kinds of knots that would be hard to untangle.
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