What would be your call?
 

Have a question from an exam - only OBR, not FED or NCAA.
R3 - 1 out. The batter hits a ground ball that goes down 3rd base line, hits the base and bounces off the base, hitting R3 who is in foul territory before passing or touching an infielder. Is it interference or nothing? OBR references would be nice. BTW, the exam is finished and the deadline for submission has passed, so this is for discussion only, not to help get a better mark.....:)

I got nothing, incidental contact with the ball, try 7.04, 7.08, 7.09 and maybe 6.05i. If you have a J/R it's in there P.98, exact play.

A runner is out when he's hit by a fair ball in fair territory.

One of theose two requirements was not met. ;)

Thanks Gents!

Nothing, live ball and probably a chat with the DC when this play is concluded.

Are you a current MiLB contracted umpire?

I have umpired MiLB games in the past but am not currently under contract.

Was this as a contracted employee of MiLB, or as a fill-in?

I ask, because I have worked as a fill in for sick and injured umpires at some MiLB games, but I would never claim to be a MiLB umpire. There is, it seems to me, to be quite a difference between contracted, full time MiLB umpires and those of us who have "umpired games in the past."

I don't recall claiming to be a MiLB umpire. MiLB, NCAA, ASA, NSA, FED, and PONY are leagues and associations that I have umpired for.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Garth B.
NCAA/ASCAP/BMI/NAACP

NAACP....... Can you get me Jesse Jackson's autograph?


Chris Hickman
MLB #15**









** I went to an Angels game last year and I sat in seat #15

R2. McCovey shift being played against the batter (hence no infielder playing even close to third). Hard hit ground ball hits R2. Nobody had a play on it. The ball did technically pass the first baseman, but he was all the way on the other side of the infield, and he was the only infielder it passed. Would this be interference? The reason I ask is because the rulebook says "touching or passing an infielder" and I am wondering if that takes into account passing an infielder who is in the immediate vicinity of the ball, or if it can mean any infielder no matter how far away he is from the ball.

I know a few MiLB umpires on the Seaboard. What League did you work and when?

Even in San Francisco, as of last summer, anyway, that was still referred to as the McCovey shift.

And well before that, it was called the Williams shift, after that notorious pull hitter named Ted.

The Williams Shift