Batter Interference With/Wihout a Play

[Mike Walsh]

My understanding is that an offensive player picking up a live ball creates a dead ball situation in the same way that it would if an umpire or a non-participating person authorized to be on the field touched a live ball. And my understanding of the OBR treatment is the same as what you described. The explanation in class that I may not have understood fully was that EVEN if the runner was going, you should kill it immediately and send the runner back – it became dead as soon as the batter touched it, so the steal opportunity was lost. No problem with not allowing an advance, but they seemed to be advocating no penalty to the batter. In Pro, the batter would be out; in Fed, just kill the ball, call the pitch, and he’s still up.