It happened last night
 

NF rules being used. R1 on 1st. R1 leads off, and then goes on the pitch. As he is running, his helmet comes off (not intentional). Batter hits ball and it strikes the helmet -helmet was sitting on the baseline between 1&2, no fielder in position to make the play. and goes into right field. After lengthly discussion, umpires leave the runners on 1st & 3rd (bases they stopped at when ball was retrieved).

Did they make the correct call?

Is it the same call in LL and OBR?

Thanks

sm_bbcoach,

Absent intent by the runner to interfere, that's a live ball, play the bounce. Fed, LL, or OBR.

JM

Aw come on! This runner did this intentionally! You've got to call him out and the batter-runner too! (No, not really. Just using someone else's line of thought on things like this. I'll give you one guess as to who that might be.)

what if the helmet was up a little further (in front of imaginary fair/foul line) and bounced off the helmet and went foul? do we have a foul ball?

Yep. No different than hitting the rubber.

JM

Thought so. Thanks for confirming.

The helmet is a foreign object, and is NOT a part of the playing field. FAIR BALL.

Bob

PBUC 4.21 Batted ball strikes helmet or bat.
If a batted ball strikes a helmet accidently (no intent on part of runner to interfere) in fair territory, the ball remains in play the same as if it had not hit the helmet.
If a batted ball strikes a helmet accidently (no intent on part of runner to interfere) in foul territory, it is a foul ball.

J/R say the same thing:
"a batted ball that strikes an unatural object (a) over fair territory remains live, and is fair or foul according the directives immediately preceeding. (b) over foul territory is foul and dead.

So in the situation by bossman72, the ball becomes foul when it ends up foul. In the OP case, in which the ball ended up fair, it is a fair ball.

Bob,

While I would certainly agree that the helmet is a "foreign object" and not part of the playing field, hitting a foreign object on/over fair territory does not determine the fair/foul staus of a batted ball - whereas hitting a foreign object on/over foul territory does.

JM