[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by J.D. Long

Sorry - This series of plays during a little league game was relayed to me as Umpire in Chief. I did not actually witness the event.

Runner on third, no outs, first pitch is wild and goes to the screen on the left side of the field. Runner breaks for home, batter moves up the third base line. Catcher retrieves the ball and runs over the batter.

On review of the play between the umpires, the catcher ran out of his way to run into the batter. If he would have moved either toward home or the runner, he would not have come in contact with the batter. There was also discussion on if the catcher did this on purpose to cause interference.

The initial call was a "no call", run scored. But it was overturned when the manager of the defensive team used rule 6.06(c): A batter is out .... making any movement that hinders the catcher's play at home base".

My initial thought process would be:
1. Was there a legit play to be made at home if not it is not intereference and the run scores.
2. If the batter was in the way of the play and actually hindered the play, intereference.
3. If the catcher actually went out of his way to collide with the batter to get interference, then the call would be no interference, warning to the catcher, and possibly a warning to the manager if determined to be directed by the coaching staff.

I agree with Marty, managers do not over-turn calls umpires do. This isn't a democracy where we rule by committee.

As for the interference, it's a judgement call, however, this is wild pitch (not a clean catch by F2) so the defense erred. Yes, B1 has to vacate any space needed by F2 to make a play, however, on a wild pitch, ball bouncing all over the place, we can't expect B1 to do a pirouette either. Therefore, INTENT enters the picture as well.

As long as B1 is making movement to get out the way and you said F2 had other options sounds like a no call to me. However, as with most of these kinds of threads it involves judgement and an umpire should not allow a coach to over-turn a call, otherwise the game could get ugly on the next series of calls.

Pete Booth