Interference? Maybe!

[WestMichBlue]

Feel like you are on a merry-go-round and cannot get off?

I don’t know if that is the right analogy; maybe it should be the “chicken ‘n egg” one.


You want to call interference with the ball in foul territory. However, to call INT, you MUST kill the play and the bounding ball becomes foul instantaneously and an infielder has no play to make because the ball is foul.

Apply this rationale to a pop fly and it doesn’t work. The instant you call interference while the ball is over foul territory - the ball is foul, thus the fielder has no play. But we know that is not true. 8.7.j provides the authority to call interference, and an out.

To me, the issue is not fair or foul, but live ball. POE 33 extends the definition of interference to anywhere on the playing surface. After you have called interference and killed play, determining fair or foul is an administrative issue. If the ball was over fair ground when killed you send the batter to 1B. If it was over foul ground you call a strike on the batter. If the B-R is called out for interference, then determining fair or foul is a non-issue.


Would you call INT if a coach reached out an snagged a bounding ball in foul territory? I would hope not.

Actually I did once just to piss off a baseball coach that I didn’t like. And there wasn’t anything he could do about it because the ball had not passed 3B and still had a (theoretical) chance to go fair.


WMB