Batter intereference with catcher's throw
 

Wearing my coach's hat last weekend, and a call has been bugging me.

16U Fast pitch, One out - runner on first.

Batter strikes out and heads for 1B dugout, runner steals on strike three and is safe. Fans/parents allowed to sit directly behind plate complain that batter got in the way of the throw and complain.

BU & PU confer and Call - stealing runner is out, end of inning

Courteously, I ask for an explanation and was told that the batter "waved the bat enroute to the dugout".

I have never seen this called before unless there is contact between the batter and catcher, batter and thrown ball, or an obvious attempt to get in the way of the throw.

Appeared to me the catcher got the throw off cleanly and the runner immediately headed for the dugout.

Shouldn't the PU immediately call dead ball, if he SAW interference, instead of waiting for the result of the play?

You forget rule 11.1.c - "If parents or fans stationed behind the dugout complain about a ruling, the umpire should abandon rules 1-10, and implement whatever actions deemed necessary to appease said fans."

Good grief - what a horrible call (doubly so in light of the fact that he did nothing at the moment of the supposed interference, and then reacted to fans. Awful.

Yes. The call would be an immediate dead ball and the runner out. Sounds like a horribly blown call that did in fact invoke the rule that mcrowder mentioned in his post! :eek:

The other coach never questioned the PU about the call, to suggest that he might check with his partner? Interesting from your post that it was only the fans questioning the call that caused the PU to check with his partner.

Maybe the crew made a mistake of not calling it immediately, but then got it right after conferring.