Cubs-Sox play

[UMP25]

John,

Back in the days--has it really been 19 years ago?--when I went to umpire school, Mssrs. Jaksa and Roder were our rules instructors. As they explained then, when a ball is deflected by a fielder and contact between said fielder and a runner occurs...

...if the fielder deflects or bobbles the ball but in such a way that he maintains the ball on his person or right near him, we have interference on the runner. This was labeled "maintain deflects."

...if the fielder deflects the ball in such a way that he just has to take a step or two to retrieve it, we have no interference or obstruction (so-called incidental contact). This was labeled "step deflects."

...if the fielder deflects the ball in such a way that he has to run or chase after it to retrieve it, we have obstruction on the fielder. This was called "chase deflects."

Rather unusual terminology, but it helped us to better understand when interference or obstruction--or nothing--occurred.