3' Lane Editorial

[WestMichBlue]

Hey, we haven’t beat up on this rule yet in the new 2006 season, so I will get it started.

On another board, AltUmpSteve stated there was no right to a clear throwing lane; and that we are wrong to call interference when a throw is altered.

I disagree. There exists a very special rule in this game that is limited to a narrow 30-foot strip and it only applies to a batter-runner when there is a play from behind. Of the 240 or more feet of running lane, about 10% of it has a rule that requires the runner to stay within a legally prescribed limit. It gives the runner an un-inhibited running lane, and it wills to the defender the rest of the real estate in which to make a throw. A “clear lane,” if you will. It is called the 3’ lane rule and it has been with us since the first rulebook in 1932.

For years I have heard ASA folks take a literal interpretation of “interferes with the fielder taking the throw at 1B.” Interference is only an act against the receiver, never against the thrower or the throw. If a defender throws over a B-R running illegally and the ball goes over the defender at 1B, too bad. If she tries to “finesse” the ball past the B-R and the defender is unable to pickup the flight of the ball and it gets away, too bad. If she steps sideways to get a “clear throwing lane,” and in doing so her throw is too late, tooooo bad!

All these “too bads” means that the defense has lost an out that they should have had a fair opportunity to get, because of the illegal running of the B-R. They lost it because the umpiring community says it doesn’t matter that the thrower was interfered with; only that the receiver was not:

Strange thing – if the ball is stopped 15’ short of 1B and the receiver can only stand there and watch the ball rolling on the ground – then somehow the receiver has been interfered with! Doesn’t take a smart catcher too long to figure out that they need to look like they are trying to get the ball to 1B; but instead they drill the B-R in the back, because now the umpire will give them the interference call.

I come from a NFHS background where as recent as 2001 we called a B-R out just for running outside the 3’ lane if a play was being made down the 1B line. Maybe that was a little extreme, but in 2002 we copied the ASA text verbatim and started getting the ASA interpretation applied.

However – even official ASA doesn’t believe it anymore! POE 33-I doesn’t use the word “fielder,” instead it states that it is illegal to run outside the lane and interfere with a thrown ball to 1B. Case play 8.2.14 describes interfering with a fielder, or a fielder’s throw!

At a National Umpires School last spring I listened to Kevin Ryan, in his Saturday morning presentation, tell us to call interference when the runner prevented the defender from making a quality throw to 1B! When I challenged him, saying that was not the way I understood the ASA position, he forcibly repeated the same thing.

That afternoon, under the tutelage of clinician and NUS Steve Rollins, we spent an hour in a drill running outside the lane and trying to make a throw to 1B. In all cases, we were instructed to call interference when the runner interfered with the throw. By time that hour was over, I was convinced that ASA did not want that strict interpretation of the lane rule anymore!

BTW – it is interesting to note that the original rule was written as it is still today – interferes with the fielder taking the throw at 1B. HOWEVER, the rule had a qualifying statement: ”If the runner runs on or inside the base line and in any way interferes with the play being made at first base, he should be called out. That qualifier stayed in the book for nearly 30 years, dropping out of the text in 1959.

IMO, we error in taking a literal interpretation of this rule. Instead we should look at the reason for the rule; i.e., the spirit of the rule. The short game is a very important part of SB; base distances are short; there is very little time for the defenders to field a ball and make a play on the B-R down the 1B line. Thus the B-R is required by rule to run outside the foul line, leaving fair territory available to the defenders to make a play. My position is if the B-R is outside the 3’ lane, and that action prevents the defenders from making a play - CALL THE B-R OUT! Don’t feel sorry for the runner – she is guilty of an illegal action. The defense deserves the opportunity to make an out; give it to them if the B-R interferes with the play.

Your turn.


WMB