Catcher's Balk

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by Thom Coste
Second - and here is the real distinction - when the batter is hindered (what you are all calling 'obstruction'), the ball remains live and in play. The manager may elect to take the result of the ensuing play, and outs can be recorded if there are advances beyond the awards. In contrast, under OBR 7.07 the ball is dead at the time of the infraction. The pitcher is charged with a balk for the sole purpose of giving the scorekeeper a ruling with which to justify the advance of the baserunner to home. It's a special case in the rules.

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Tom: With all due respect to a fellow UT member: You're just wrong. Note that in 6.08(c) the CMT reads:

If catcher's interference is called with a play in progress the umpire shall allow the play to continue...."

If the catcher (or any fielder) "touches the batter or his bat" with a runner advancing (7.07), the umpire would still leave the ball alive. Why? Well, how about if the batter, in spite of the catcher touching his bat, hit a home run?

You are saying that with the runner coming from third, catcher interference is autotmatically a dead ball, as per 7.07. That cannot be right. The only time it could be right is if the catcher jumped in front of the plate so that the batter couldn't swing.

But in that instance, with R3 moving, 6.08(c) would be perfectly capable of sending B1 to first and R3 to home.

Mike Winters on the Golden State Bulletin Board opined he always told his students in umpire school to scratch out 7.07. Reason: It's now out of date, for 6.08(c) entered the book 20 years later and covers everything available in 7.07 except it doesn't charge the pitcher with a balk he didn't commit.

The difference between 7.07 and 6.08(c) is so miniscule as to be unseen by anything except an electron microscope. It affects only R2, and only when R2 doesn't run when R3 takes off for the plate.

If that happens, the OBR umpire must choose between 6.08(c) and 7.07. The 6.08(c) ruling allows only runners who are force or moving on the pitch to advance following catcher interference. Thus, R2 stays at second.

The 7.07 ruling allows everybody to advance. There was a balk, remember? Thus, R2 goes to third.

If such did happen, you would be in for a protest -- regardless:

Defense: Thom advanced R2 in contravention of 6.08(c).
Offense: Thom did not advance R2 as per 7.07.

Well, this play is on my wish list for interpretations from the PBUC. We'll find out, just in time for Christmas, what they would do in the minor leagues.

BTW 1: The play must have happened somewhere, sometime in the NCAA. See 8-3o, where the college rules committee says, in effect, enforce "7.07."

BTW 2: Harry Wendelstedt told me if it happened to him, he would enforce 6.08(c): "If that schmuck on second is so studid he doesn't run, I ain't gonna give him a base."

As they say in The Show:

I hope this helps!