R3 blocks thrown ball from F2-F5

[Paul L]

I'm mainly a baseball ump, and do some high school softball for my association, but hardly any ASA, so I make little effort to keep up on ASA rule changes, except through this forum. The corresponding Fed rule is 8-6-10(d), which reads "A runner is out when . . . the runner interferes . . . intentionally with a . . . thrown ball." (my emphasis)

This thread sent me to the ASA rule differences chart (at asasoftball.com/umpires) which confirms Canary's and IrishMafia's shocking news that the word "intentionally" has been dropped from ASA rule 8-7-J-3. That chart says "A runner may not interfere with a thrown ball causing interference. It no longer has to be intentional."

So it seems that the letter of the rule supports Canary's original postion. But the consensus of the worthies of this forum seems to be that everyone knows that if the runner is just doing what you would expect, then inadvertent interference is not an out. Is there a casebook play or an authoritative ruling to this effect, or is this just civil disobedience? What was ASA's purpose in dropping the word "intentional" from the rule? How's an ump like me reading the rule supposed to know about the universal contra-literal interpretation of the rule?

So Canary has a good question:

Originally Posted by Canary

at what point do we relieve the runner of the responsibility to avoid interference?

1. Batter hits possible triple to right. While sliding in on a close play at third with her arms spread, the thrown ball hits her on the left arm.

2. Catcher attempts to pick off a runner at third and the throw hits the runner on the helmet as she is running back to third base, as in the OP.

3. Runner is in a rundown between first and second. As she is moving towards second, F4 catches a throw and, as the runner stops and stands up and is looking at F4, F4 throws the ball back towards F3, inadvertently bouncing it off the runner's shoulder.

4. No. 3's runner falls to her hands during the rundown, and while immediately getting up at the spot where she fell, she gets bonked from behind by a throw, sort of like IrishMafia's example.

In all cases, the runner reaches the base without being tagged, the contact of the ball with the runner hinders a fielder's attempt to execute a play, and no one (runner or fielder) intentionally caused the contact.

Are any of these cases outs?