Quote:
Originally Posted by BaBa Booey
Here's my $.02. I don't have a rulebook handy so no citations. As the umpire, I cannot read the BR's mind, and I don't know if he's taking off to 1B because he thinks he has a right to or because he wants to interfere in some way. I assume by "unintentionally" colliding with F2 you mean he doesn't make it obvious he is trying to interfere. At this point I would kill the play, the batter is already out on stikes so you can't call him out on the interference, so you call R2 out and send R1 back to 1B (assuming that there were no outs to begin with.) I feel this is similar enough to the BR interfering with the catcher making a play on a stealing runner on strike 3. Bottom line, the BR did something he shouldn't have (run towards first).
Here is my rationalization: You've got a fielder attempting to make a play (F2) and a BR already put out interfereing (regardless of intent). You've got to penalize the offending team, so I would call out the runner on which I believe F2 was going to make the play on.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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While it has been said a batter cannot not disappear, he just can't materialize in certain spots.
Interference is interference. Agreed with this remedy to the solution.