Odd Yanks-Royals call today

[Dave Reed]

I typed
Yankees Royals Jeter Damon followthrough
into Google. The first entry is this Official Forum thread, and the second is this link:
http://www.sportsline.com/mcc/messages/thread/9948265

It appears to be a thread (40 pages!) in which people are commenting on the game as it happens. Here's a 3 consecutive posts:

1:50 pm Ponson is getting all the Royals hitters to swing early in the count..Jeter with a horrible error
1:55 pm Damon hits it hard so it's scored a base hit...Yankees gotta get somethin going here
1:58 pm WTF. That was Jeters follow through that hit Buck....Now instead of being 1-1, its 1st and 2nd...wow

Absent an elaborate cover-up effort (by MLB? Wally Bell?) involving fake posts, I'd say that at least one TV observer of the game saw something or heard commentary that supports the call.

[johnnyg08]

very interesting call...I'm waiting for some of the regulars to chime in here with something other than "Jeter gets all the calls" BS.

[greymule]

That was Jeter's follow through that hit Buck....Now instead of being 1-1, its 1st and 2nd...wow

In any case, that didn't make it "1st and 2nd." It was Damon back to 1st with Jeter still up. The Yankees announcers didn't say anything about follow through or backswing at all. They said they couldn't understand the call, and later declared that they had received the ruling that on "inadvertent" interference, the runner returns with the batter still up. But what do they know? They thought that if Jeter had interfered, the runner would be out.

I wish there were pictures of the play. No way it was "backswing," though you could argue that Jeter's "follow through" carried him out over the plate to cause the contact (which would likely be INT).

Remember that 6.06 (c) mentions the backswing hitting the catcher or the ball before the catcher has securely held the ball. This contact occurred on the throw to 2B, well after Buck secured the ball.

[Dave Reed]

Originally Posted by greymule

In any case, that didn't make it "1st and 2nd." It was Damon back to 1st with Jeter still up.

Wow, you're not usually this "mule-like".
The guy writing the comment is a Yankee fan, who believes that Damon should have been left at 2nd instead of returning to 1st, and then when Jeter hit his single, Daman would have scored, making the score of the game 1 to 1.
You didn't see contact on the follow through; somebody else watching the game did, or heard some announcer say it.

Remember that 6.06 (c) mentions the backswing hitting the catcher or the ball before the catcher has securely held the ball. This contact occurred on the throw to 2B, well after Buck secured the ball.

This seems to be the ol' "I don't like ruling so I'm going to insist on following the rules exactly as written."
As I already told you, this issue is covered in the PBUC manual and in J/R. It's also in the BRD (#262 in my 2004 edition), because FED has an out, while NCAA and OBR have, well, the ruling that Bell gave at the game.

From the PBUC:
"This interpretatin applies even if the catcher is in the act of making a throw to retire a runner. That is, if the batter is in the batter's box and his normal backswing or follow-through strikes the catcher or the ball while the catcher is in the act of throwing, "Time" is called......."

[greymule]

Thanks, Dave. Your explanation makes sense.