Catcher's Interference or Nothing?

[DG]

Originally posted by JEAPU2000

My inclination is nothing, but I would not try to decide intent, if he brought his bat back and made the catcher drop the ball on a steal attempt I have pretty much the same thing as I would if he took a swing at an outside pitch and ended up out in front of the plate. Did he interfere or not, intent has nothing to do with it, and I can't read minds. When he takes a big swing and his backswing knocks the ball out of the catcher's mitt I am pretty sure that is not intentional either. [/B]

DG, in OBR, if a batter's backswing iinterferes, even if a runner is stealing, it's nothing. With a runner moving then it's a dead ball and runner goes back (if the throw doesn't get him). BUT, that's only if you think it's unintentional. If it's intentional, then you have interference. I would find it hard to believe a batter could actually orchestrate that, but I guess it's possible. Anyway, no we can't read minds, but an instance like this is one where we need to determine if something was done intentionally. [/B][/QUOTE]After your post I had to go back to the BRD to review this one, and there are several differences between FED, NCAA and OBR and even differences in situations in OBR. It's not always nothing in OBR. See 263 in the 2005 BRD for all the differences.