Referee Magazine March 2015

[conbo61]

Test Yourself Column, Page 38, Situation #3.

 

With one out an no count, R1 is attempting to steal second.  Th pitch to B3 is in the dirt and B3 does not swing.  However, once the ball is past him, B3 waves the bat and hinders F2's throw to second  R1 is ruled safe on the play.

 

A.  No interference and play is live,

B.  Charge B3 with interference, B3 has a 1-0 count and R1 is out.

C.  Charge B3 with interference, B3 is out and R1 returns to first.

 

I had "C" (just like any other batter interference), however according to the answer key, the correct answer is "B".  They cite 7-3-5c.

 

A batter shall not...

ART. 5 . . . Interfere with the catcher's fielding or throwing by:

a. leaning over home plate,

b. stepping out of the batter's box,

c. making any other movement, including follow-through interference, which hinders actions at home plate or the catcher's attempt to play on a runner, or

d. failing to make a reasonable effort to vacate a congested area when there is a throw to home plate and there is time for the batter to move away.

PENALTY: When there are two outs, the batter is out. When there are not two outs and the runner is advancing to home plate, if the runner is tagged out, the ball remains live and interfer­ence is ignored. Otherwise, the ball is dead and the runner is called out. When an attempt to put out a runner at any other base is unsuccessful, the ­batter is out and all runners must return to bases occupied at the time of the pitch. If the pitch is a third strike and in the umpire's judgment interference prevents a possible ­double play (additional outs), two may be ruled out (8-4-2g).

 

 

Did they provide an incorrect answer or am I missing something in the difference between back-swing and follow through interference?

 

 

Also, not to "unlock" a previous thread, they had an article regarding the safety of officials and they brought up a good point for providing locker rooms for officials.  A locker room provides a safe haven for officials to wait while crowds leave.  If an official made an "un-popular" call and is i leaving the venue at the same time, he is an easy target.

[johnnyg08]

I guess I would've answered C.  An answer of B simply doesn't make sense to me.

[BuckeyeMike]

Conbo, I thought the same thing when I read that earlier this week.   I think it's an incorrect answer.  

[bam]

Shocking! Referee magazine has the wrong answer.

[Majordave]

Shocking, anything FED/NFHS has the right answer.

 

 

My .02.  YMMV

[Pops]

Yes. The answer was incorrect. There was a correspondence to one of our board members in Illinois recently:

 

Thank you for your email involving the test your question. We made an error involving the magazine and you are correct the answer is c. The batter is out and all runners must return to bases occupied at the time of pitch. We apologize for that. Thank you for your continued support to Referee Magazine and NASO.

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me

Chris Szolyga

Assistant Editor

Referee magazine/National Association of Sports Officials

[johnnyg08]

Yes. The answer was incorrect. There was a correspondence to one of our board members in Illinois recently:

 

Thank you for your email involving the test your question. We made an error involving the magazine and you are correct the answer is c. The batter is out and all runners must return to bases occupied at the time of pitch. We apologize for that. Thank you for your continued support to Referee Magazine and NASO.

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me

Chris Szolyga

Assistant Editor

Referee magazine/National Association of Sports Officials

Thank you for posting this.