Quote:
Originally Posted by David Emerling
Catchers (on well coached teams) are never taught to "plug a batter" because, if he misses the batter, you may end up with both a bad throw and no interference call.
Instead, if the catcher notices the runner is out of the lane and blocking his throw, he should target the first baseman, not the runner. That's not to say he should throw around the runner, rather, he should throw through the runner. Just pretend the runner is invisible. If it hits him - fine! You should get an interference call. If it misses him - fine! You were throwing to the first baseman anyway.
The mistake this catcher made, obviously, was trying to loft the ball over the runner - exactly what the runner was hoping for, I imagine.
So, the consensus seems to be: FED = interference. NCAA/OBR = nothing.
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I guess I was not a good coach, back in the day when I coached, because I told catchers to throw the ball directly to F3 and if there was no throwing lane to F3 because BR is out of the lane, do it anyway and the umpire would make the call. At least if they drilled the BR in the back the ball would not be in RF. Of course if you can get a throwing path to F3 take it.
Lobbing the ball around or over BR was not coached.