Deflected Batted Ball Strikes the Runner Deflections make for knotty problems since they usually lead to right of way arguments. Whenever a batted ball is deflected off the pitcher or another infielder into the path of the runner, one of three things can happen: The ball can remain alive and in play The runner can […]
On Sunday the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros played at Minute Maid. In the bottom of the second, Tony Kemp was batting with the bases loaded and one out when Kemp’s swing made contact with the mitt of Royals’ catcher Drew Butera. Plate umpire Lance Barrett ruled the ball dead because it was a […]
Two Batter Interference plays that occurred six days apart are worth a look. Play Number 1 On August 31st the Astros hosted the Rangers at Tropicana Field in Florida because of Hurricane Harvey. In the bottom of the first, the Astros had George Springer on first base and no outs when Alex Bregman swung through […]
If a manager wants to challenge multiple situations in the same play, what is the proper way to have the field umpires communicate this to the Command Center? The manager should tell the field umpires the situations he wants challenged. It should be done in layers at the same time. Does a tag attempt […]
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was ejected during the top of the eighth inning by umpire Vic Carapazza after Carapazza ruled a Type A obstruction on second baseman Devon Travis during a rundown with Franciso Lindor in the eighth inning of the Indians-Blue Jays game on May 8 in Toronto. Cleveland had runners on second […]
The Yankees and White Sox played on July 5, 2016, at U.S. Cellular Field. The Yanks had Brett Gardner on second base in the top of the ninth with no outs when Ronald Torreyes hit a high chopper toward first base. White Sox pitcher Michael Ynoa ran toward the ball to make a play but […]
With so many head-first sliding runners in baseball there are more fielders who will drop a knee in front of the base to keep the fielder from touching the bag. Here, however, we are not talking about the home plate collision rule. In this case, we are discussing a play at any base where the […]
If a runner is obstructed returning to a base which he missed, he is awarded the subsequent base (beyond his position at the time of the obstruction). [OBR 6.01h1: The award is one base beyond the base last legally touched.]
The act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball, impedes the progress of a runner. [OBR Obstruction Definition: The act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of a runner.]
Chris Jaksa, my co-author of the Jaksa-Roder Manual and predecessor as rules instructor at the Brinkman Umpire School, taught me one thing that really helped me get interference and obstruction plays right. He called it the “Interference/Obstruction Continuum,” and I pass it along whenever I can. Chris was a serious intellectual, so the rest of […]