Ever seen the BR run into the 3rd baseman on a bunt up the 1st base line?

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

Major League game, actually. And the B/W picture is 60 years old, so what's the point of discussing that?

As far as the little ball discussion and "exceptions" stated by another poster, to me this is interference plain and simple no matter if it's baseball or softball. F5 is a protected fielder fielding a batted ball. What's the discussion?

Well, the assertion was made that we were moving down some little ball slippery slope....

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

IMO, you are all headed back down the slippery slope that baseball uses to justify not making a call required by rule. ....If you keep trying to add another layer of exception, you might as well start calling little ball rules; and that is EXACTLY why softball made the rule as clear as it is, to STOP using little ball logic....

The two pictures, one from long ago and one from last week, illustrate two things: 1) MLB does NOT interpret interference according to the black-letter rule, and they never have (that is, it is not a slippery slope from the MLB perspective), and 2) If anything, MLB is moving (down or up... your choice) a slope to apply the interference rules MORE by the book, but still not completely by the book. There have been several "take out" plays this season that have been called as interference in MLB, so that when an 'old school" non-call happens (like the retro uni game ... as an aside, why on earth would the Astros ever bring back those fugly unis as retro... but I digress) it generates discussion among the BB umpires.