Happened last evening during my 12 and under 2.75 hour game (no time limit).

R1 at 3B and B2 is right handed batter. Passed ball hits backstop, and veers off to right toward home team dugout. R1 is attempting to score on passed ball. B2 is backing away from possible play at home plate. I even motioned for B2 to back out of the way. When F2 retrieves ball, B2 is directly but unintentionally between F2 and where F2 needs to go in order to tag R1. In fact, F2 runs into B2 in her attempt to get to R1. R1 makes it safely home, but would have probably been tagged out if B2 hadn't been in the way. I did not call interference because I felt that B2 did exactly what she should have done (get out of the way of possible play at home) and did not intentionally get in F2's way. I know that it is a HTBT play, but I would like some feedback. Can interference be called in that situation if B2 is not intentionally interfering with play?

[Edited by Stair-Climber on Jun 10th, 2005 at 12:33 AM]

Stair-climber,

ASA Rule 7 Section 6 p.

The batter shall not:
4) Interfere with a play at HP. [Intent not mentioned]

i've got INT on that play if in my judgement the catcher would have gotten the out... B2 needs to go where ever she has to 2 get out of the way no matter where the play ultimately ends up being made, its her responsibility

Interference, no doubt about it. Intent is not required.

That was my next question: (Speaking ASA) so from your responses, it is the batter's responsible to look back at passed ball and know where the ball and F2 are located and make effort to get out of the way of play.

Yup.

PS - don't motion for B to get out of the way... what if she follows your directions and that CAUSES her to interfere? Who has egg on their face now?

Absolutely.

Agreed. And, even if you don't cause her to get in the way, you should not be coaching the players. Just like you don't tell the catcher where a wild pitch went, or where the pop up is, or ...

Don't coach the players.

It's funny... this exact same situation happened to the team I help coach today in our end-of-season league tournament. Our catcher couldn't get to the tag at HP because the batter was in the way. Blue (a new ump in our association) didn't call it - ruled the runner safe. I called time and went out there, and calmly asked him if he saw the interference by the batter. He thought a second, looked at me and said "Yes." I asked him "Then who's out?"

He thought some more, and said "The lead runner." I just said "OK Blue, make the call" - knowing that it should have been the batter, and the runner should have gone back to 3B. He turned and reversed the call just like he told me. The other coach came unglued (she obviously wanted the run to count).

His explination to her: your batter isn't on base yet, so the out is the lead runner. The other coach accepted this. (meanwhile I'm back in the dugout now, telling my other coaches I'll tell them what happened in a minute...)

Afterwards, when I saw the ump in the parking lot after the game, I told him that he called a good game, but that interference play he needed to read up on. He looked at me funny and said "Yeah, I was gonna brush up on that tonight." I told him that it was a good idea - because I pulled one by him. He looked at me all serious and said "What? You helped me through that." I said, "Yes, I did... and you made the decisions. If you read the book, the batter should have been out and the runner back on 3B."

He just stared at me - "You told me the wrong thing?!?"

"No, Blue - I just asked you questions to help your line of thought. You made a decision. It was better for me to shut my mouth at that point and walk away then to tell you that you got it wrong."

He stares at me dumbfounded - "You're bad..."

"Yep, I coach and I umpire. Bad combination. Look at it this way, blue: You're gonna read the book tonight, and you're never gonna forget this call for a long time. And the next time it happens, you're gonna get it right.. aren't you?"

I walked away - he was just standing there shaking his head.