Did I miss this?

[baseballfan]

Pretty strange play today in 11-12 year old game... No runners on base. Batter hits a little flair to the right side about 20-25 feet down the 1B line. The ball drops, and the pitcher is coming towards it. The spin of the ball is clearly taking it towards foul territory. Just before the ball crosses into foul territory untouched, the BR runs into the pitcher, who I couldn't really tell whether or not he was going to try to make a play on the ball or let it go untouched. Anyway, it went untouched, and I called it foul. At the time, I decided the foul ball took precedence since I couldn't tell for sure if the pitcher was going to try to get the ball before it rolled foul.

 

Is this the right call? I know OBR doesn't say the ball has to be fair in order for there to be offensive interference. In fact, 2.00 Definition of Infield Fly says that if offensive interference is committed on an apparent IF, and the ball rolls foul, the runner is out. So, I think I may have made the wrong call, but am just not sure.

[MB_Ump]

Your judgement call. If you think F1 wasn't trying to field the ball, then no interference. If you think the runner interfered with his attempt to field the ball, then call it. Fair/Foul isn't important.

[Texas Manny]

Interesting situation you have. By what you said, there can be no offensive interference because the pitcher was apparently just site-seeing the ball to see if it goes foul, and not in the act of fielding. You can though, have obstruction.

 

In the PBUC Manual, on pg. 84, Section 7.10, Play 2, Batter Runner is obstructed before reaching first base, with no play being made on him, they instruct the umpires to call obstruction, but leave the ball in play until play is over.

 

Well, that means you have a foul ball. Logic says, since the ball wasn't impacted by the obstruction, everything resets. FOUL BALL.

[noumpere]

 who I couldn't really tell whether or not he was going to try to make a play on the ball or let it go untouched.

 

Sometimes you need to umpire.

 

If he was making a play (and you think he would have made a play and here you give a huge benefit of the doubt to the defense) then its an out and if he wasn't then its just a foul ball.

 

Either way, expect a coach to come out.  If they didn't then it was probably more obvious than you think.

[ikeequa]

But what happens when the BR collides with the pitcher causing the pitcher to touch the ball in fair territory? If the pitcher is standing there just watching the ball and has no intention of making a play, then he needs to get out of the way.

[Dannytheman]

But what happens when the BR collides with the pitcher causing the pitcher to touch the ball in fair territory? If the pitcher is standing there just watching the ball and has no intention of making a play, then he needs to get out of the way.

I think this goes back to the obstruction call that was mentioned earlier. It is definatley a HTBT play. If you play and umpire games enough you get a sense of what the players are doing.

[noumpere]

But what happens when the BR collides with the pitcher causing the pitcher to touch the ball in fair territory? If the pitcher is standing there just watching the ball and has no intention of making a play, then he needs to get out of the way.

Hes still most likley the protected fielder.

[mstaylor]

Manny has the answer to the OP. Now the twist of the collision causing the pitcher to hit the ball in fair is interesting. I agree is he has no intention of fielding it he needs to clear. Is the runner collides with him, non maliciously, and he touches the ball, that's obstruction.<br /><br />Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2<br /><br />