FED Play of the Day

[shickenbottom]

What movement if any did R1 make? This may help to know as I am feeling this is one of those "had to be there" situations. You could call it either way. My reasoning is that depending upon where the ball was hit, and how quickly the front end of the DP was made, the runner may not have had an opportunity to exit the basepath prior to getting nailed.

1) If there was insufficient time to veer off, that's nothing.
2) If the runner had began to veer off, that's nothing.
3) If there was sufficient time to veer off and the runner was a deer in the headlights, bang the interference, and call the DP.
4) If the runner was waiving his arms, bang the interference, and call the DP.

Two years ago in a fall ball game I had a similar situation, however, instead of R1 getting nailed in the helmet, he took it on the left cheek just below the eye. Runner went down in a crumpled heap, opened up a gash about an inch long and had swelled his eye almost shut immediately, and was bleeding profusely. The ball was hit to F6 side of 2nd base, F6 fielded, stepped on the bag and threw to 1st. Runner had no opportunity to leave the base path, so once R1 got to the bag, I killed the play, took care of the injured player. No interference.