Interference and Force Out, Baseball Style

[Dave Reed]

Originally Posted by mbyron

For FED: score the run. R3 had scored at TOI. The batter did not make the 3rd out, R1 did. It was INT with a batted ball, which cannot be a force play.
8-2-9: "In the event of interference, a runner returns to the base he had legally reached at the time of the interference."

I don't fully buy either one of these points. R1 is in a force play, but the out by interference doesn't meet the FED definition of a force-out, which is specifically runner tagged or base tagged. However, rule 9-1-1, which governs scoring runs, has the following exception:
" d. when a third out is declared during a play in which an umpire observed a base-running infraction resulting in a force-out (this out takes precedence if enforcement of it would negate a score);"

Firstly, this usage of force-out doesn't match the definition in Rule 2-24-1. Also, while it is a stretch to consider deliberate interfernce as a "base-running infraction", I think that the intent of the rule is to deny the score whenever a forced runner is out before reaching his forced base. At least that's what my secret decoder ring says.
The exception quoted above doesn't appear in OBR, and it doesn't need to: OBR doesn't allow the score on interference, and by interpretation, a force-out includes outs made by base-running infractions (e.g. out of baseline)

Now regarding 8-2-9, consider the following play, in which no one is forced. 2 outs, R2, R3, with R3 going on the pitch, soft pop up to shortstop. R2 bulls his way into the defensive play and catches or knocks down the ball, after R3 had crossed the plate. Do you score the run? Absent the interference, B/R would make the 3rd out, and no run would score. With the interference, and taking 8-2-9 as gospel, R2 made the 3rd out and the run scores.

I suppose the most umpires would rule that the inteference started before R3 crossed the plate.