MarkW

Last night, in my son's AAA (ages 9-11) Little League game, a runner missed home plate while scoring. The manager tried to appeal as did the 9yo pitcher; neither one appealed it correctly. At that level, what is your thinking as an umpire? Require the kid to perform a tricky appeal play correctly, or be more lenient - let them do the appeal and then call the runner out for missing the plate? From the umpire's behavior, he acted as if the kid missed the plate, othewise I feel he would have rushed it all along. For the record, he is the best umpire at that level in our league.

OK, so, here's my basic question, with interference called on a force play at second, is it an automatic double play? Or is the umpire's judgment call? In my game last night, we had a play at second, where the runner was ruled to have interfered with the second baseman covering 2B on a force play. It was a slow ground ball and the runner arrived shortly after the ball. He didn't slide and had some incidental contact with the second baseman. It wasn't willful or deliberate. The base umpire called interference which was fine and then ruled it a double play. The second baseman was not making a play and given the slowness of the hit and the moderate speed of the runner there was no chance of a double play. We protested mildly, it was cold and we had the lead. And the plate ump informed us on the bench that it's an automatic double play and wouldn't have mattered if the batter runner was 30' past the bag. That part didn't sound right. Was he correct? Does the interference mandate that the batter runner is out? And if there was no play at first, should the intereference have been called?

7.09 It is interference by a batter or a runner when_ (a) After a third strike he hinders the catcher in his attempt to field the ball; PENALTY FOR INTERFERENCE: The runner is out and the ball is dead. Is this one of those instances where the umpire's judgment rules the play? Does unintentionally kicking the ball count as hindering the catcher's ability to field the ball? Or Does the lack of the word "intentional" in the rule, infer that any contact is interference?

In last night's game - in an adult (30+) hardball league - an opponent batter struck out swinging at a curve in the dirt. The left-handed hitting batter took off towards first base. The ball bounced off the catcher and into the batter's box, where it was inadvertently kicked by the batter/runner. The ball squirted about 10' towards the 1B dugout and the runner reached safely. How does the batter/runner touching the ball affect your call? I cannot find a rule to cover this. But, I think it should be a dead ball, and the batter should be out. I don't see why the defense - which (probably) would have easily picked up the ball in the batter's box and thrown the runner out by 30 feet should be punished by something done by the offense - even if it is inadvertent. The 2 umps conferred and allowed the runner to stay at first since the contact was incidental and it was not a batted ball. There were no fireworks. Lots of head scratching, but no fireworks. Just wondering if they made the right call.