Quote:
Originally Posted by Manny A
By your parsing of the interpretations, the fielder gains protection as he's fielding the batted ball, loses it after he fields it and starts running towards the runner, and regains it when he starts his motion to throw to the other fielder.
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No, once the fielder had the opportunity to throw and doesn't, the act of fielding a batted ball is over, and the fielder loses his protection.
Consider R1 and a batted ball fielded by F6 close to second base. F6 runs to tag 2nd, and R1 "takes him out" so that he can't complete a throw to first. We see this frequently in MLB, and there is no interference, as long as R1 can reach the base.