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Old Thu Jul 17, 2008, 08:29pm
John Robertson John Robertson is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 94
On-Deck Batter interferes with ball four

Here's one that happened tonight:

Runner on third base. Batter up with a 3-0 count. Pitch comes in low for ball four. It bounces off the catcher's shin guard and rolls toward the on-deck batter. The runner at third is not especially fast and cautiously goes about one-third of the way down the line as the catcher chases the ball near the on-deck circle. Just as the catcher goes to pick the ball up, the on-deck batter decides to be "helpful" and kicks the ball towards the catcher!

I called time sent the runner back to third and made the batter-runner go no further than first on the walk. If either the runner at third or the batter-runner had been trying to advance on the play, I would have called the on-deck batter out for interference--which would have been a first for me.

Would anyone have called interference regardless?
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