Two 2004 MLB Interpretation.

[Gee]

"The Major League Baseball Joint Committee on Training, consisting of representatives from MLBÂ’s Umpiring Department and its umpire staff, unanimously agreed to two new rule interpretations at a recent meeting.

The first deals with a live batted or thrown baseball that inadvertently goes inside the uniform of a player or coach on the field, or becomes lodged in the catcherÂ’s mask or gear. At least one such play has occurred this season, another in this yearÂ’s spring training, and a third during the 1999 season.

When a batted or thrown ball enters a playerÂ’s uniform or the catcherÂ’s gear, the ball is to be ruled dead and no subsequent outs can be obtained by the defense. The umpire is then directed to employ common sense and fairness and place the runners such that the act of the ball becoming dead is nullified. The umpire may not, however, enforce any outs that he thinks may have occurred had the ball remained live. Outs occurring before the ball went out of play stand.

MLB umpire Jim Reynolds has been on the field for two plays where the ball went into a fielder’s jersey. The first was in St. Louis in September of 1999. “I was working first base and we had runners on first and second,” said Reynolds. “The Cardinals were in the field and there was a ground ball to their third baseman that went into his shirt. When I saw the ball disappear into the jersey I called time and was about to award two bases. That’s because at the time there was a minor league interpretation to cover the play and I knew that MLB did not have an official ruling for it. Tim Welke, who was working the plate and was also the crew chief, awarded all runners one base, saying it was the common sense thing to do.”

It was déjÃ* vu for Reynolds this spring training. “I was again working first base, this time in St. Petersburg, a Devil Rays game. There were no runners on base and the ground ball went into the third basemanÂ’s uniform. I hesitated this time to award two bases because of the play in ‘99. At first we were only going to give him one base, but I conferred with plate umpire and crew chief John Hirschbeck and third base umpire Tim Timmons and we gave the batter second, based on the interpretation we had learned as minor leaguers.”

The third play happened—with a twist—this past June 21 at Toronto. Blue Jays first baseman Carlos Delgado tried to field a ground ball for an out at first when the ball accidentally went into his uniform top. Unable to get it out, he ran to first and touched the base ahead of the batter-runner’s arrival. The batter-runner was ruled out. The new interpretation now forbids such an out; the ball is dead when it goes in the shirt and the batter-runner would be awarded first base.

The new interpretation goes on to emphasize that a ball stuck in a fielderÂ’s glove is not to be considered out of play; the ball remains live. It is legal for one fielder to throw the glove with a live ball stuck in it to another fielder. A fielder who possesses the ball/glove combination in his own hand or glove can complete a tag of a runner or base, just as if he were holding only the ball.

The second interpretation is in regard to a pitcher using the stretch position with no runners on base and failing to come set. The Joint Committee stated that this act is not, in itself, illegal, since the Official Rules do not provide a penalty for it. However, the Committee did emphasize that Official Rule 8.01d prohibits a pitcher from delivering the pitch before the batter is reasonably set in the batterÂ’s box." G.

[mrm21711]

Thats been out for a while on the World Umpires website

[ozzy6900]

Here's the link for this interp which was posted on 8/21/2003 for those doubters:

http://www.worldumpires.com/news/082103RuleInterp.htm