Runner handles live ball
 

R1 on 1st. F1 makes pick off throw. F3 drops ball. As R1 is getting up from his dive back, he picks up the ball and hands it to F3.
I called him out.

So the dude is standing on base, there's no possible play, and you punched him out? For what? What did he interfere with?

Exactly why I'm posting. Not asking to be ridiculed. It was 14 U and I never had it happen before. So if there were other runners on base, then he's out?

Did he interfere with a play (was there even another play?), or did he help out?

I guess being helpful.

Put it this way ... when he held the ball, it became a dead ball. Now ... did he interfere with a play? Sounds like, likely, the answer is no. If he did not interfere, you have no rule by which to call him out.

they were meant to be rhetorical questions to guide you to the right answer -- in this particular case and in others that might be similar but slightly, yet significantly, different.

Exactly what I was thinking after the game. That's why I asked other opinions. Thanks.