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Intentionally Deviating to Add Difficulty
I'm not sure how many of you happened to see a play between Detroit and New York involving Ichiro. I can't recall which game it was, but the situation was this: Ichiro was on second base, and someone hit a ground ball to the shortstop, who was playing deep. Ichiro, against common practice, took off for third. The shortstop decided to throw to first instead to retire the BR.
During the play (which was highlighted by an announcer during a replay), Ichiro started running straight to third from second. But then he deviated to his right and ran in an arc towards third base, essentially putting himself between the shortstop and third to add to the difficulty of any potential throw.
If the shortstop had thrown the ball to third and hit Ichiro in the back, would you consider an interference call under 7.08(b)? Why or why not?
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