[greymule]

Thanks for the responses, guys. When these plays occur, they are seldom the case book examples.

Here's a case book example: Batter hits ball in front of plate. Batter starts to run to 1B, catcher starts to field the ball. They collide inadvertently. Ruling: Incidental contact, no interference or obstruction.

But here's a play I had Sunday in men's modified pitch: No one on base. Left-handed batter hits a medium pop-up about 12 feet up the 1B line and slightly fair. Batter is slow finding where he hit the ball and instead of running to 1B, stands in the box and looks for the ball. Catcher throws off the mask and turns around, thinking the ball is behind him. But he doesn't see it, and quickly starts scanning the rest of the sky. When he sees the ball, he runs toward it, his path taking him directly behind the batter. At the moment, the batter starts to run to 1B and bumps the catcher, a step or two out of the box. I'm thinking about interference, but the catcher settles under the ball, so I figure it's going to be a moot point. Naturally, though, the catcher drops it. However, he picks it up in time for a play at 1B. The throw beats the runner, so again I figure moot point, but F3 fails to catch the ball. Now I have to make a call and again make no call, treating the situation as in the case book play above.

The defense didn't argue too much, I suspect because they knew they blew two easy chances for the putout and didn't "deserve" an out on the play.

But I still don't know what the correct call was.