All;
I don't usually deal with rules questions but an interesting situation came up last night where I did a 13 inning game as the PU (Ugh):
NCAA rules, R1, 1 out, batter is right handed.
R1 starts to steal and the batter swings, steps across the plate and clearly interferes with the catcher's throw to second. I am about to call interference when out of the corner of my eye, I see R1 turn around and retreat to first. The catcher's throw gets to second without delay and there is no chance for a relay to first because R1 is within 20 feet of first by the time F4 gets the ball. (Even if the batter had not interfered, there would have been no chance to get R1 back at first after even a perfect throw to second. R1 got too late of a jump, reocgnized his error, and had stopped by the time the ball had reached the plate.)
Despite a few meek calls for interference by the defense, I ignored what would have been obvious interference had R1 gone to second. I did not make the call because there would have been no way to sell this to the offense. I would have ended up with an ejection.
In real baseball, umpire decisions are made based as much on the expected call as well as the call by the rules. I am sure that I made the "right" call for the game, but did I make the correct call by the rules? If I had tried to call interference, even the defense might have questioned my judgement, not to me of course, but privately to themselves.
If this is truly interference by rule, I can think of a number of weird situations that could result. Consider this:
Everytime a batter steps across the plate with runners on, the catcher could make a throw somewhere and claim interference. The fact that no one was stealing and he had no chance to get an out would be irrelevant. So we are forced to ask:
When is a steal, not a steal?
Have at it.
Peter
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