[greymule]

Interesting.

Funny thing was, this official posed a question that apparently came from his recent rules discussion with other ASA people: Uncaught strike 3 bounces off F2 and rolls in front of the plate. BR starts to run to 1B and inadvertently kicks the ball into DBT. What base do you award the BR?

When I answered that this year's test posed practically the identical situation, and the answer was that the batter was out for INT, he told me that the test question was wrong. So I agreed that I didn't like the INT ruling and said I would award the batter 1B only. He said that I was correct, because the interpretation was that a pitch, not a thrown ball, had gone out of play.

At your next meeting, see what you can do about that play where the BR deliberately clotheslines F3 after the runner from 3B crosses the plate.

I would recommend (1) a stipulation that if a runner or BR commits INT before the BR reaches 1B, all runners return TOP, with the runner closest to home still out on deliberate INT, and (2) a runner who has crossed the plate before INT on a fly ball should still be considered the runner closest to home.