Coaches Interference

[Guest T Buck]

Runner advancing to third on this play with two outs.  The ball is overthrown and the ball goes down the line 10 ft toward the outfield now after deflecting off the fence and close to the fence still as well and the third baseman retrieves and picks the ball up in foul territory to make a play on the runner who is now going home after the overthrow at third base. The third base coach never turns around to see where the deflected ball ends up behind him now and just stays put in the coaching box area looking forward at the runner and watching him run towards home.  The amount of time elapse from the overthrow at the base to when the 3rd baseman tracks it down and picks it up is around 3-4 seconds.  After the third baseman picks up the ball he looks up to begin to throw home from foul territory but the coach is in his direct line of sight and throwing lane so he has to take another step to his right now to get a clear path to throw the ball home.  Close play at the plate but the runner just beat the throw and was safe as the catcher actually missed the ball anyways coming into his glove being in a bad position at the plate and getting partially screened by the runners body coming down the line and the ball just coming over the runners body at this point.  Is the runner out for coaching interference on this play and if so can you recite the rule that supports this as i have look up a couple of the MLB 2016 rules on coaching interference but nothing i have found so far says it exactly as it happened on this paticular play.

thanks

[scrounge]

There is virtually no way I'd call coaches interference on that. The coach has to intentionally interfere to get this call if he's in foul territory. This doesn't sound like it comes anywhere near that threshold. All the detail is interesting....but not terribly relevant in my opinion. Sounds like you're building the case that the coach had some duty to look where the ball was and actively get out of the way. That's not at all what's meant by intentional interference. Quite often, base coaches aren't looking for the ball - they're coaching the runners.

As long as the base coach didn't actively do something explicit to interfere with the fielder's throwing lane (jump into his way, actively try to shield him, etc) and the coach is in foul territory, this is a big bag of nothing.

[Senor Azul]

OBR 6.01(f) [old rule 5.08] Coach and Umpire Interference

If a thrown ball accidentally touches a base coach, or a pitched or thrown ball touches an umpire, the ball is alive and in play. However, if the coach interferes with a thrown ball, the runner is out.

The interpretation of this rule from the 2016 BRD (section 312, p. 210):  "It is not interference if the base coach is accidentally hit by a throw anywhere on the field."