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You Make The Call
by Dave
Sunday, May 04, 2008
One of my favorite "shorts" on televised NFL football games is the one where they show you a play and "you make the call." I wish I had softball video for the following but I don't. Let's see if my words do it justice.
Batter hits a pop-up along the first baseline and runs towards first. First baseman calls "I got it" and attempts to make a play. Batter-baserunner continues towards first running hard right on the baseline, contacting the chalk with each foot in sequence. Batter-baserunner approaches fielder still stepping on the chalk with each foot. First baseman, standing completely in fair territory, reaches up to catch the pop-up but as the two players come together, there is a moment during which the batter-baserunner appears to make some slight contact with the fielder who, about a quarter to a half second later drops it into fair territory. Immediately following the play, there are tons of catcalls from fans along both sidelines. On the defensive team's side, folks yell "interference!" On the offensive team's sideline, they yell "she was in the baseline!"
Just to properly set the stage - this is a pretty big high school game, under the lights, on a Saturday night. Emotions are very high. Both teams have filled their respective benches with JV players to support the varsity girls. Both benches are very loud. Additionally, there are 200-300 fans in attendance. Every major player in the county is here watching. There has been yelling on every pitch beginning with the first one. Every call has been questioned by someone. Every "out" has raised screams of pain from one side or another. To this point of the season, you have not officiated a game which is anywhere near as intense as this one.
Both teams are relatively young. There aren't a half dozen seniors starting. Yet almost every girl starting on both teams has played this game at the highest levels. At least half these girls have played ASA Gold or showcase ball before college coaches. The other half will probably do so within the year.
There will not be many runs scored here. Baserunners will come at a premium. There may be as few as a half dozen baserunners for the entire game for both teams combined and this very well could go into ITB. That's not to say these girls can't hit. Several in this game are hitting at, near or above .500 against other teams.
The pitcher for one team has allowed no earned runs this year. The pitcher for the other team sports a sub-1.00 ERA and hasn't given up a run in recent memory. Both girls are throwing in the 60s with good movement and location on their pitches.
Small ball is coming into play as the two teams try desperately to get a runner on and move her along. Whichever team gets a runner past first, over to third and across the plate first, is going to win.
These conditions should not impact your call, but let's face it, stress is stress and human beings are human. Whatever you decide to call, somebody is going to be unhappy. If you make a bad call, people will be talking about it for years and asking you about it for just as long. The next time you make a questionable call in any game, somebody there will have seen or heard about the call you made here. They will inevitably remind you of tonight's call. Now:
You make the call!
We'll make this just a little easier (if that's possible) by providing some possible considerations. You could call:
1) Obstruction by the fielder who was blocking the baseline without having possession of the ball.
2) No call - the batter-baserunner stayed completely in the baseline and, therefore, had a right to be where she was. She couldn't have interfered because she was making an ordinary effort to just get to base while not leaving the baseline.
3) Interference by the runner who did not allow the fielder to make a play.
4) No call because the runner either did not make contact or made such light contact that it couldn't have impacted the fielder's attempt to make a play. Alternatively, you might think contact did occur but that the fielder either had no chance to make the play or the runner was so far beyond the fielder when the ball came down that no call should be made.
I won't go straight to the call the ump actually made. That would be too easy, totally unsatisfying, and provides no instruction. Instead, let's analyze what happened on the play and how that might be viewed within the context of the rules of the game.
First of all, the notion that a fielder can obstruct a runner while in the act of fielding a ball is wrong. A fielder can obstruct a runner while not in possession of the ball or while awaiting a throw but not while she is attempting to make an initial play on a batted ball. The first baseman has a right to make the play whether she is in fair or foul ground.
Secondly, a baserunner has almost no more right to be in the baseline than the batter has to be in the batter's box. Having said that, I realize perhaps some of you do not realize that the batter does not have a right to the batter's box. The rules read something like the "batter's box is not a sanctuary." In other words, if there is a wild pitch or passed ball while there is a runner on third, the batter must get out of the way and permit the defensive team to attempt to make a play. She cannot simply stand in the box and then, when she is called for interference, claim "but I was in the box." Well, I guess she could but the ump won't agree.
A few years ago, I observed a play on which a runner from second stole third, the catcher threw towards the base, but the ball hit the batter, standing like a statue in the box, in the helmet and bounded out of play, thereby allowing the runner, now at third, to advance to home. I didn't understand the rules when I observed that play and thought the umps had made the right call. In the newspapers, the batter noted that long ago she had learned when there is a play going on while she is at bat, she should stay in the batter's box and that way she can't be said to have caused any interference. I assure you she is wrong. The batter's box is some sort of absolute sanctuary.
The batter has a duty to get or stay out of the way of fielders making a play. The only benefit of staying in the batter's box is that the umpire more or less has to read the batter's mind and determine if she is intentionally interfering. Intention has bearing in this case and no other. In most other types of interference including our case today, it can be "intentional or unintentional." So our runner to first's intentions don't bear any weight at all.
Runners are not really "entitled" to the baseline. The baseline is an area a baserunner cannot leave while attempting to avoid a tag but it is not the exclusive domain of the offensive team. For instance, let's say there is a runner on first and the batter hits a groundball at the second baseman. The runner from first, advancing towards second as she must on the play, is not entitled to the baseline. If the fielder is standing in the baseline awaiting the ball, the runner must allow her to make the play. If she contacts the fielder before the ball gets there, she will be called for interference. If, on the other hand, she goes around the second baseman and gets past her before the ball gets there, you will never see her called out for "leaving the baseline."
Let's think about this for a second. When have you ever seen a baserunner called out for leaving the baseline. My guess is the only time you have ever witnessed that occurred where there was a tag play on the runner. For example, let's say you are at a field where there is no outfield fence and the batter hits one hard in the gap. She ends up legging out a homerun. As she approaches first, she will most likely balloon out her running path well beyond the "running lane" (we'll get to that in a minute), turn and head for second. As she approaches second and then third, she will again balloon out, usually well outside the baseline, round the bag and head for the next base. When have you ever seen an umpire hold up his or her hands and announce that the batter-baserunner is out for leaving the baseline? It doesn't happen and it shouldn't happen.
The only time the runner should be called out for leaving the baseline occurs when she does so to avoid a tag or to interfere with a play. Most rulebooks I have consulted only refer to the baserunner being out for leaving the baseline "to avoid being tagged out by the fielder." Conversely, most rulebooks also provide, the baserunner is not out when she "runs behind or in front of the fielder and outside the base line in order to avoid interfering with a fielder attempting to field the ball."
So, had the batter-baserunner ballooned out on this pop-up, she should not have been called out for running outside the baseline. Any ump who would call a runner out for leaving the baseline when she did so to avoid contact would be ... um ... wrong. Runners are obligated to go above and beyond to avoid contact. That's within the letter of the rulebook for all competitive softball. It is also the virtual embodiment of the spirit of the rules of the game.
There is a related play which I think we should discuss, however briefly. Last year, in a MLB game, the New York Yankee's Alex RodrÃguez was running towards third on an infield pop-up. As he approached the third baseman, he supposedly said something, exactly what has been questioned extensively. Some said he yelled "I got it" whereupon the third baseman backed away from the play and the ball fell to Earth. A-rod denies he said "I got it" and instead said something else which, while not overtly intended to confuse the defensive player, was kind of, sort of intended to confuse him. I believe A-rod also added something like "hey it's a part of the game, I can't tell you how many times I have gone for a pop-up and somebody yelled something like that."
I don't know MLB rules on the subject but I do know absolutely that you can't do something similar in a fastpitch softball game. The offensive team is not allowed to do or say anything which is intended to confuse the defensive team. For example, a base coach, baserunner, or player in the dugout cannot yell "I got it," "ball, ball, ball," or "miss it" in an attempt to get the fielder to make an error. In fact, fans cannot do that either. It is interference and such a play should not stand. That's because the way the rules are currently worded, interference is defined as "the act of an offensive player or team member which impedes or confuses a defensive player attempting to execute a play." For more on what fans cannot do, see rules under "fan interference."
So the baserunner is not "entitled" to the baseline and there are strict limitations on what an offensive player, coach or even fan can do when a batted ball is in the act of being fielded. What we're left with is either interference or no call.
Before I go on, let me say that generally any contact, no matter how light, is usually considered cause for an interference call and well it should be. The fact is light contact is easily as distracting to a fielder as a runner knocking her down. The reason is the fielder, anticipating contact and then feeling what seems like the first touch of what is going to be a collision, necessarily believes she should go into personal protection mode.
There really is no such thing as slight contact. There is such a thing as incidental contact but that says nothing about the intensity of the contact, rather it refers to contact that couldn't really be avoided. In this case, I told you the batter-baserunner "appears to make some slight contact." Degree doesn't really matter so the question is whether there was any contact at all or she otherwise interfered with the fielder.
Also, I told you the batter-baserunner's feet were stepping on the chalk baseline as she headed for first. I don't see it discussed very much but there is something we should at least mention. Many people see the lines on the field and wonder what some of them are about. There is the coaches box which usually does not contain a coach. The rules say they should stay there but seldom are these rules followed by base coaches. Then there is that funny, seemingly out of place line which goes from first to about halfway to home in foul ground. Nobody seems to fully understand what that is for.
I'm not being snotty or self-righteous here. It's just my experience that most people I have discussed this with don't seem to understand what that line is supposed to be for. That line is referred to as "the three foot line." In baseball, I think it is called the "restraining line." The line is drawn exactly three feet from the first baseline, beginning exactly half the way from home to first. Normally the legal baseline for a baserunner or batter-baserunner is the area extending out three feet on either side of a direct line between bases. the one exception to this rule is the area thirty feet from home along the first baseline. There the batter base-runner must stay in foul ground on her way to first - she must stay between the lines drawn, the foul line and the "three foot line." if she leaves that and is hit by a throw, say from catcher to first, she can and should be called out for interference.
As a minor point, I cannot exactly find this next small aspect exactly discussed anywhere but I arrive at my opinion via deduction and, in the end, I believe it won't matter anyway. I told you that the batter-baserunner was running down to first with her feet landing on the chalked baseline. The question is, was she within the "three foot line" or not. I haven't seen this precise topic discussed but let's start out by saying the foul line is not really the "foul" line. It is clearly the "fair line." That is, the chalk or whatever material which makes up the so-called "foul line" ir in fair territory. My understanding is the running lane to first is supposed to be exclusively in foul territory. So technically, the runner was out of the baseline! But I don't think this matters because whether she is in or out of the baseline, whether she is where she is allowed to be or not, has no bearing on whether the call should be interference.
It is also irrelevant whether the batted ball dropped into fair or foul territory. The fielder has just as much right to field a foul pop-up without interference by the batter-baserunner as she does a fair ball. Had the first baseman been standing on the bag or straddling it while trying to make a catch, the baserunner could not step onto or slide into the bag and then complain that she didn't interfere because she just has to get to first if the ball is dropped. The fielder has right of way, if you will.
I need to tell you what the ump called in this case and then see if I can bring this to a conclusion. First of all, the ump made no call and the play was allowed to stand. the defensive coach screamed his lungs out at both umps and then left the field. The field ump who was the only one who could make the call, said, "I did not see any contact." At the time, everyone, including yours truly, pretty much shut up and accepted this explanation. But in hindsight, this isn't right. There is no place I can find where contact is a necessary element of interference. Contact would require a call of interference but I do not believe the absence of contact dictates no call of interference.
As we said, the batter-baserunner was possibly not running within her lane since she was in fair territory. And she did not make any attempt to avoid interference. She could have run 5 or 10 feet to the side of the first baseman and completely avoided any chance of being called for interference. She didn't and I believe based on these facts alone, interference should have been called.
Just to conclude this discussion, let me tell you that I was in a better position than the field ump. I was standing about 15-20 feet away from the first baseman, obviously I was off the field and out of play. There was contact made between the batter-baserunner and the fielder. In fact, there is no question that this constituted interference, none whatsoever. I was a little shocked that the ump did not see the contact. It wasn't all that slight. But be that as it may, no runs scored in that half inning so the play made no difference. Still, I would advise coaches to teach their runners about this pretty arcane aspect of the game and tell them not to worry about running outside the baselines when avoiding contact with a player making a play on the batted ball, at least within reason!Labels: baserunning, interference, rules, umpiring
 
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