Baseball Interference

• Outline
  • Rules
  • Baseball field
  • Equipment
  • Player rosters
  • Non players
  • Distinctive elements
  • Defensive Players
    • Pitcher (P)
    • Catcher (C)
    • First Baseman (1B)
    • Second Baseman (2B)
    • Third Baseman (3B)
    • Shortstop (SS)
    • Left Fielder (LF)
    • Center Fielder (CF)
    • Right Fielder (RF)
  • Offensive Players
    • Batter
    • Runner
    • Designated Hitter
    • Pinch Hitter
    • Pinch Runner
    • Lead Off
    • Lead Off Hitter
    • Cleanup Hitter
• Gameplay
  • Defensive Play
  • Offensive Play
  • Batting order (1-9)
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Game progress
  • Batting
  • Pitching
  • Base running
  • Fielding

In baseball, interference occurs in situations in which a person illegally changes the course of play from what is expected. Interference might be committed by players on the offense, players not currently in the game, catchers, umpires, or spectators. Each type of interference is covered differently by the rules.

Offensive interference

The most common incidence of interference occurs when a member of the offensive team physically hinders the defensive team, decreasing its chances to make an out or increasing the chance that a baserunner will advance. Whenever this offensive interference occurs, the ball becomes dead.

• If the interference was committed by a batter or a baserunner, that player is called out and all other runners must return to the bases they occupied at the time of the interference.
• If interference is committed by a runner with the obvious intent of preventing a double play, the batter-runner will be called out in addition to the runner who committed the interference.
• If interference is committed by the batter-runner before he or she reaches first base with the possible intent of preventing a double play, the runner closest to scoring is called out in addition to the batter-runner.
• If interference is committed by a retired runner or by some other member of the offensive team, the runner who is most likely to have been put out will be called out.

Under Little League (LL), high school (NFHS) and college (NCAA) rules, if interference is committed by a runner with the effect of preventing a likely double play, regardless of his intent, the batter-runner will be called out in addition to the runner who committed the interference.

Also under NFHS rules only, all runners are required to attempt to avoid collisions. If a runner fails to do so, he is guilty of malicious contact, which is one kind of offensive interference. Malicious contact carries the additional penalty of ejection from the game. In contrast, in professional and higher amateur baseball, violent collisions can occur without any interference (or obstruction), especially when a fielder is receiving a thrown ball near a base where a runner is trying to reach. Any collision that occurs in this situation is not interference, because the fielder's action is in regard to a thrown ball. As long as such a runner's actions are related to his attempt to reach the base, he cannot be called for interference. The most common case of this is when a runner is attempting to score and the catcher has control of the ball. If the catcher is in the path between third base and home plate, the baserunner may strike the catcher with his body in an attempt to dislodge the ball from the catcher's hand and then reach home plate. This is usually attempted only when the play is close. When the catcher is set up and ready, the runner has little chance of knocking the ball away. Any such attempt presents a significant chance of injury to the baserunner, which has prompted the malicious contact rule to be used more often. In addition to the general subjective definition of offensive interference, it is also interference by specific rule when:

• The bat hits the ball a second time in fair territory, such as while the bat is being dropped;
• A batter or runner intentionally deflects the course of a batted ball in any manner;
• A member of the offensive team stands near a base to impersonate a baserunner or to otherwise confuse or hinder the defense;
• A coach physically assists a runner in returning to or leaving first or third base;
• A batter, while running to first base, runs outside the three-foot running lane and interferes with the fielder taking a throw at first base;
• A runner makes contact with a batted ball that did not go through or by a fielder, unless no infielder had a chance to immediately field the ball (in this instance, the runner is out, the batter is credited with a base hit, and no other runner advances unless forced to advance one base);
• A runner makes contact with a fielder attempting to field a batted ball, except the batter with the catcher in the immediate vicinity of home plate immediately after the ball was batted; or
• A member of the offensive team intentionally touches a thrown ball, or intentionally hinders a fielder attempting to make a throw.
• The batter physically hinders the catcher's opportunity to throw out a baserunner while standing outside of the batter's box.

There are some exceptions to the penalty for offensive interference.

• If there are fewer than two outs and a runner is trying to score, and the batter interferes with the tag attempt at home plate, then the runner is out for the batter's interference, while the batter is not out. If there are two outs in this situation, the normal interference penalty applies: the batter is out and the run does not score.
• If a runner's interference is caused by his being positioned at a legally occupied base and the fielder is trying to make a play on a batted ball in the vicinity of the base, interference is not called.

Verbal interference

At some levels of play, verbal as well as physical hindrance can be called for interference. For example, if a runner or other member of the offense calls out "foul" on a fair ball or "mine" on a fly ball, he may cause the defense to react differently from how they otherwise would have, resulting in an interference call. This is not called as interference in professional or higher amateur baseball.

Umpire's interference

It is umpire's interference when the umpire hinders a catcher's attempt to throw anywhere. In this case, if the catcher's direct throw retires a runner the play stands. If not, the ball is dead and all runners must return to the bases they had most recently touched (before the catcher's throw).

It is also umpire's interference when an umpire is struck by a fair batted ball before it touches or passes near an infielder other than the pitcher. This can occur either because an umpire is inside the diamond or because the ball crosses 1st or 3rd base in fair territory then hooks or slices foul into the umpire positioned just outside the line behind the bag. In this case, the ball is dead, the batter is awarded first base, and all other runners advance only if forced. A common example is when a batter hits a fair ball down the first base line so hard that the first base umpire can't avoid it. Even though the hit would have surely been a bases-clearing double or triple without the interference, it is only a single and runners advance no more than one base.

Catcher's interference

Catcher's interference is called when the catcher physically hinders the batter's opportunity to legally swing at a pitched ball. This occurs most often when a catcher squats too close to home plate, so that the batter's bat touches the catcher's mitt as the batter swings. This is most likely to happen on attempted steals where the catcher is anxious to catch the ball as soon as possible and may move his entire body or mitt forward a bit.

In this case, play continues, and after continuous playing action ceases, the umpire will call time. The penalty here is that the batter is awarded first base, any runner attempting to steal is awarded that base, and all other runners advance only if forced. Additionally, the catcher is charged with an error (although the batter is not charged with an at-bat). However, if the actual playing result is more advantageous than the penalty, the offense may elect to ignore the infraction (ex. if the batter-runner reaches first safely and all other runners advance at least one base, catcher's interference is ignored by rule).

Under high school (NFHS) rules only, catcher's interference is instead called catcher's obstruction.

Spectator interference

When a spectator or other person not associated with one of the teams (including such staff as bat boys or ball girls) alters play in progress, it is spectator interference, colloquially called fan interference. It is worth noting that the latter is also (incorrectly) used to refer to fan obstruction – for instance a spectator running onto the field and tackling a baserunner. The ball becomes dead, and the umpire will award any bases or charge any outs that, in his judgment, would have occurred without the interference.

Such interference often occurs when a spectator in the first row of seats reaches onto the field to attempt to grab a fair or foul fly ball. If the umpire judges that the fielder could have caught the ball over the field (ex. the ball would have not crossed over the plane of the wall), he will rule the batter out on spectator interference. Also, the spectator who commits interference is usually ejected from the stadium. Note that spectators are allowed to catch a ball that is in play when the ball has broken the plane of the spectators' side of the wall. The area where both fielders and spectators are legally allowed to catch the ball is colloquially called no man's land.

Umpires typically grab their wrist above their head to signal that spectator interference has occurred.

Common misconceptions

When a fielder hinders a baserunner, the situation is called obstruction, not interference. Baseball commentators will often mistakenly refer to obstruction as interference.

Not all physical contact in baseball is interference. Accidental contact that has little or no effect on play will usually be ignored; physical contact must result in an advantageous situation for the offense to be considered offensive interference. Nor must physical contact occur for interference to be called. A runner may interfere with a fielder simply by hindering the fielder's ability to attempt to make a play on a batted ball.

If a base runner is hit by a fair-batted ball while standing on a base, the runner is out, unless the ball has already passed an infielder OR it's a declared infield fly. The base is not a sanctuary.

Being in contact with a base may protect a baserunner from being called out for interference in the case of a fielder attempting to field a batted ball.

Per MLB rules:

"If a runner has contact with a legally occupied base when he hinders a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball, the runner shall not be called out unless, in the umpire's judgment, such hindrance, whether it occurs in fair or foul territory, is intentional. If the umpire declares the hindrance intentional, the following penalty shall apply: With less than two outs, the umpire shall declare both the runner and batter out. With two out, the umpire shall declare the batter out."

Per Little League rules:

7.08—Any runner is out when –

(b) intentionally interferes with a thrown ball; or hinders a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball. (NOTE: A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not.)

 

• Outline
  

  SPORTS WORLD

  Baseball

  Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each who take turns batting and fielding. The batting team attempts to score runs by hitting a ball that is thrown by the pitcher with a bat swung by the batter, then running counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate.

  Rules and gameplay: A game is played between two teams, each comprising nine players, that take turns playing offense (batting and baserunning) and defense (pitching and fielding).

  Baseball field: A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played.

  Equipment: A rounded, solid wooden or hollow aluminum bat. Wooden bats are traditionally made from ash wood, though maple and bamboo is also sometimes used.

  Player rosters: Roster, or squad, sizes differ between different leagues and different levels of organized play. Major League Baseball teams maintain 25-player active rosters.

  Non players: In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices.

  Distinctive elements: Baseball has certain attributes that set it apart from the other popular team sports in the countries where it has a following, including American and Canadian football, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer.

  Defensive Play: Baseball is unlike most other competitive sports in that the defense is given control of the ball.

  Offensive Play: Batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher.

  Batting order (1-9): The batting order or batting lineup is the sequence in which the members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher.

  Strategy and tactics: Many of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers.

• Baseball Positions
  

  SPORTS WORLD

  Baseball Positions

  At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players on the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher's mound.

  Defensive Players

  Pitcher (P): The pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk.

  Catcher (C): When a batter takes his/her turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher.

  First Baseman (1B): First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team.

  Second Baseman (2B): The second baseman often possesses quick hands and feet, needs the ability to get rid of the ball quickly, and must be able to make the pivot on a double play.

  Third Baseman (3B): The third baseman requires good reflexes in reacting to batted balls, as he or she is often the closest infielder (roughly 90–120 feet) to the batter.

  Shortstop (SS): The position is mostly filled by defensive specialists, so shortstops are generally relatively poor batters who bat later in the batting order, with some exceptions.

  Left Fielder (LF): Outfielders must cover large distances - speed, instincts, and quickness in reacting to the ball are key. They must be able to catch fly balls above their head and on the run.

  Center Fielder (CF): A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball fielding position between left field and right field.

  Right Fielder (RF): Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound.

   

  Offensive Players

  Batter: A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, drive runners home, or advance runners along the bases for others to drive home.

  Runner: In general, base running is a tactical part of the game with the goal of eventually reaching home to score a run.

  Designated Hitter: The rule allows teams to have one player, known as the designated hitter (abbreviated DH), to bat in place of the pitcher.

  Pinch Hitter: Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute.

  Pinch Runner: The pinch runner may be faster or otherwise more skilled at base-running than the player for whom the pinch runner has been substituted.

  Lead Off: A lead or lead off is the short distance that a player stands away from their current base.

  Lead Off Hitter: Leadoff hitters must possess certain traits to be successful: they must reach base at a proficient on-base percentage rate and be able to steal bases.

  Cleanup Hitter: Cleanup hitters often have the most power on the team and are typically the team's best power hitter; their job is to "clean up the bases", hence the name.

SPORTS

 

RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Baseball" and "Interference (baseball)", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.