Interfence?

[DownTownTonyBrown]

Coaches whine for this call quite often.

A couple of general principles...

Once the ball is hit, the defense has the right to field the ball unhindered. Jumping over the ball and running in front of the fielder are not interference. Running at him or yelling at him or somehow definitely disturbing his concentration could, and likely should, be called interference. Obviously, contact initiated by the runner is interference.

The fielder has responsibilities here too! He must make a valid effort to field the ball and the umpire should see that he is afforded the right-of-way (position) to do so - as always, the runner must avoid contact.

Seems like there was discussion here not to long ago that involved a fielder who abandoned his attempt to field the ball by moving laterally away from the ball and into the runner - asking for the interference call. Appropriately this is obstruction and possibly malicious contact.

You applied the penalties for interference correctly however, as described, interference was probably the wrong call.

But then, HTBT