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MIKE: I think you are misreading the posts. No one has remotely suggested waiting for the result of the play
Maybe a poor choice of words on my part. What I wanted to say is that you are pre-judging the results of the play, suggesting that the fielder may not catch a bad throw.
MIKE: If the umpire judges that the defender did not have a shot at catching this low throw, it is very possible that there was no violation.
The ball hit the runner; otherwise we probably have no call. Therefore that ball was anywhere from zero to 6'-7' off the ground, and in-line with the thrower and the fielder at 1B. I will make no assumptions about the ability of the fielder to make that catch IF the ball get to her.
MIKE: You may be looking at the wrong end of the play. . . . for the BR to be ruled out is totally reliant on whether their action interferes with the fielder taking the throw at 1B
I think that you are reading that too narrow. It would suggest that the runner must be on top of (or close) to the fielder to directly interfer with her. But the rule covers a violation that may occur anywhere up to 30' away (the length of the 3' lane). IMHO, if the ball is stopped or deflected away, that action has prevented the fielder from making the play.
I am trying to judge the "intent" of the rule. It seems to me that the rules makers wanted to guarantee the runner a direct path to 1B, which then required the fielder to adjust their throw to miss the runner. But if the runner is out of her "safe" zone and ends up in a direct line from the thrower to the receiver, then she is no longer protected. Even if she is not hit by the throw. If the ball zings by her ear or under her arm the fielder may not pick up sight of the ball soon enough to make the catch. IMO, that could be interference.
Now, admittedly, that is "seeing the result" of the play. But it happens so fast. The throw goes by the runner and the fielder misses it in a fraction of a second - you're throwing up your hands and killing the play.
Remember this was a POE for FED ball last spring. We were instructed to enforce this. We covered it in pre-game. Maybe we called it a little too liberally, but the effects were to get those runners back into the lane (especially sub-varsity). We called it, and the coaches coached it. I also think that it was a safety issue. Most FP softball batters are forward in the batter's box, and then run a line from that point to 1B, all in fair territory, on a collision course with F4. By forcing the issue, we found that batters were running the lane even when the throw was from somewhere other than behind them.
WMB
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