Preventative What?

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by teebob21

I believe the word you are looking for is "more". There is zero rule support for this case play, and nothing in the umpire manual to back it up, either.

A few years back there was a regional umpire clinic and an individual was invited and was "given" a spot to cover interference. He offered the following play:

Runner on 1B and batter hits a pop-up near the 1BL, but definitely over fair territory. F1 & F3 start for the ball, but F1 takes control and is waiting for the ball when the BR runs into F1. The ball drops in fair territory and then rolls foul.

The ruling stated was for the umpire to rule a foul ball to avoid a mess. The 10 umpires from my association all looked back and forth at each other shaking their head, knowing full well that was very weak.

The ruling in the OP reminds me of that day at which I'm still SMH.

Oh, how I long for the days when umpires were directed to call the rules regardless of what anyone may have to say about it.