Jazz Hands Interference

[Kali]

So this play left me with a bunch of questions.  High School Varsity game, bases loaded with 1 out.  I'm working the plate with a very experienced umpire on the bases.  The batter hits a bounding ball directly at the short stop.  R2 takes one step and then stands directly in front of short and turns to face the ball with arms at the sides and hands at hips in a position I can only describe as "Jazz Hands".  Just as the ball arrives, R2 steps out of the way and short gets hit right in the nuts.  My partner signals "that's nothing".  The short stop picks up the ball which is at his feet and throws to 1st to get the BR.  Then he crumples into a fetal position and the other runners advance.

After the play, the defensive coach comes out to talk to my partner.  My partner comes in and asks me if I thought it was interference.  He didn't call it because the runner hadn't contacted the ball or the fielder.  I said I thought that was probably the most flagrant and intentional interference that I had ever seen so we decided to call it.  We called R2 out on the interference but let the out at 1st stand, R3's score was taken off the board.

So here are the questions:

1) Was this really interference or just really smart base running?

2) When we decided to make the call in our little conference, who should have annouced it?  Were we overturning my partner's non-call or was I now the calling umpire?

3) If I thought it was interference at the time, should I have called it then even though my partner had just signaled "that's nothing"?

4) Should the ball have simply been dead at the time of the interference and the throw from short never happened? (1 out only and BR gets 1st)

5) We were thinking that without the interference short would have had time to throw home or initiate a double play, but he didn't attempt either of those things so was his play really interfered with at all?

Let me know what y'all think

[SeeingEyeDog]

I know a lot of people are going to come in here and say, "If you had interference, why didn't you call it? Why did you wait until after the play to say you had interference?"...and so on.

I get it. That's NOT technically plate's call but...if you saw it when it happened? You're an umpire. Call it.

1) I have interference.

2) It's U1's call. You got together and decided to call interference. The proper procedure is for the umpire whose call that was, (U1 here) to go to the "impacted" coach first. (The coach of the team the call is going against.) Was this an NFHS rule game? If so, the ball is dead on the interference so, R2 would be out and the BR is awarded 1B. "Coach, after conferring with my partner, we have interference. Your runner from second base is out on the interference call and the batter runner is awarded first base." Then U1 should go over to the other coach and inform him of the final ruling. Oh...and make sure you send the coach back to his dugout BEFORE you get together with your partner. 5-1-1e is your NFHS citation.

3) Yes, your partner had his opinion..."that's nothing" and you can have something different. You had interference? Call interference. Then you can get together and talk about it. Please make sure you are 100% sure of that in real time.

4) Correct...see above.

5) That is entirely your judgement. As described, I have interference and I am enforcing it as indicated above.

~Dawg

[Velho]

1 hour ago, Kali said:

High School Varsity game

I see you're in Seattle. I hope this wasn't my alma mater.

I'm with my Dawg above.

The one thing I'll add, since this reminded me a play I had 2 weeks ago: BU isn't always able to see something like this.

2 umpire crew, I was PU, R2, BU in C, grounder to SS, R2 starts forward and then jukes back and then forward again. The first juke happened so fast, it was behind BU. He didn't see it. BU safed what he saw which was R2 running straight to 3B. F6 gots BR at 1B for 3rd out so I didn't make any correction.

Doesn't sound applicable here since my R2 didn't wait until the last second but it does remind me that the Responsible Umpire doesn't always have full info and sometimes we need to cover each other's back even if it "looks weird".

[noumpere]

I'll add that you can get DP in FED on this.

[SeeingEyeDog]

8 minutes ago, noumpere said:

I'll add that you can get DP in FED on this.

Citation, please?

~Dawg

[jimurrayalterego]

1 hour ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Citation, please?

~Dawg

There are several in the book which I'm assuming you have since you used NFHS U1 to indicate PU which no one else does.

[Velho]

NFHS 8-4-1-h "The batter-runner is out when: any runner or retired runner interferes (2-21-1, 2-30-3) in a way which obviously hinders an obvious double play;"

OBR 6.01(a)(6)  If, in the judgment of the umpire, a base runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate.

 

Looking at that language, is the NFH (obviously hinders) standard higher than OBR (obvious intent)?