Interference

[IRISHMAFIA]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Roger Greene
[B]

Originally posted by David Van Milligen
"Sit#2 BUT under some circumstances I believing not moving maybe ruled intentional. This would be a judgement call by the ump."


That would fly in the face of all the official rulings I've seen on interference by a batter. In fact, it would be a direct contradiction of several.

Roger Greene

I agree, Roger. Sometimes reading too much into a rule gets umpires in trouble.

A comparable example is that the past few years, I've had umpires argue with me that a base coach who gets hit by a thrown ball while still standing in the box should be called for interference. I've even seen this called in a game in which I was participating as a player. A wild throw from left field to home hit my coach in the side of the head as he was covering up and diving in the opposite direction toward a fence to get out of the way of the throw. He ended up on the ground with the beginning of a nice headache and the umpire ruled the runner between 3B and home out for coach's interference.

Their argument: It's the coach's responsibility to know where the ball is at all times and his/her inability to move out of the way should be considered an intentional act.

This apparently got so bad somewhere, ASA added a sentence which did nothing, but reiterate the rule preceding it.