[UmpJM]

UmpTT,

I guess you could say FED uses the "intervening play" philosophy because in all three sitches in Tim's OP, the play at the plate "stands" and any remaining runners are returned to their TOI (rather than TOP) bases.

But FED doesn't really need the "intervening play" concept because the "default" rule in FED is that on interference, runners return to their TOI base, not their TOP base.

For example....

R1, no outs. R1 is stealing on the pitch and the batter hits a "swinging bunt" out in front of home plate. As the catcher fields the ball and begins to throw, the R1 has already reached 2B. The BR, running in fair territory the whole way, is hit by the catcher's throw and the ball dribbles into the 1B dugout on the ricochet.

In OBR, the BR is out for the RL interference and the R1 returns to 1B.

In FED, the BR is out for RL interference and the R1 gets to stay at 2B.

No, really.

And, if you think THAT'S strange, brand new for 2010, there's a FED interp that says you award a runner a base BEYOND that he legally occupied at TOI when his runner teammate interferes.

JM