Batter's Box Question

[Fan10]

Since we're talking about broadcasters, I'll tell one from several years ago where a TV broadcaster actually tried to find the right information, then ultimately praised the umpiring crew--but for the wrong reason.

Several years ago, I was watching an MLB game on TV when there was a base hit down into the right field corner. When the play started, there was a runner at 1st. As the ball rolled around in the RF corner, a fan reached over the wall and touched the ball. Fan interference was called. Watching the game live, I thought I knew the rule (and I later checked online at MLB.com and discovered I was right) that when there was fan interference, the umpires used their judgement to determine where to place the runners. In this case, they allowed the runner at 1B to score and awarded the batter second. The TV guy was very confused, saying that he had never before seen one runner awarded 3 bases and one runner awarded 2 bases. Then, he said, "But, let me check the rule book."

Obvioulsy, that's not an easy thing to do when you're live on the air, so I was impressed that he was trying to get the right info rather than to blast the umpires. A few minutes later, they made the 3rd out and went to a commercial. As they left the air, he said that he would keep looking. When they returned back from the commercial, he was praising the umpires--saying that if the runner has already reached 2B, they can award him 2 bases from that point!!

To this day, I have no idea what rule he found that led him to believe that. However, I did gain a lot of respect for him for not jumping to conclusions when it first happened, for actually looking in the rule book and trying to find the rule that applied, and for praising the umpires for getting it right--even if he was praising them for the wrong reason!