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I am watching Missouri at Auburn. Missouri has runners on 1st and 2nd. After the pitch, catcher tries to pick off runner on 2nd, but in the process, shuffles his feet a couple of times towards 3rd. This causes the catcher to end up directly behind the right handed batter, who is still in the batters box. Catcher then throws to 2nd, but because the batter is in front of him, he throws high and the ball sails into centerfield. The home plate umpire immediately calls out the runner for batters interference.
My question is: how can the batter interfere if he is still in the box and it was the catcher who moved himself behind the runner?

I have tried to upload the actual video, hope it worked.

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batter interference?
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Originally Posted by dash_riprock:

I don't have BI either.  PU may have been screened because he was too low.

 

I think it's a timing issue (aren't most of them?)

 

A little background for those of you that aren't NCAA umpires: I can't remember the last time, if ever, video questions on BI weren't on the test. They're tricky ones, and not from the angle where they get called, so they stick in the brain. There's a seed there for us to be cognizant of it, even though it's such a relatively rare issue.

 

Often times when BI occurs, it is on a play like this--batter bunts or swings, and moves across the line of throw for the catcher. So, given that this batter moved towards the plate (although not over and as part of his bunt attempt, which is legal,) I'm sure that PU had the fuse lit to watch for BI. Catcher moves over, there's a straight line from him through the batter to 2B, and the throw gets airmailed. PU, seeing the movement by the batter as the pitch came in, gets the BI, without thinking of who actually moved which direction.

 

There's a 50/50 chance I would have called BI here, and that's because I likely would have fallen into that trap.

@pilsner: My error. I did say runner, but meant batter.

Matt: That's logical. It all happens so quick too. It's easy to make the correct call after watching slow - mo a couple of times, even for a non - ump like myself. You know, umpires receive a lot of grief from those of us in the stands or watching on TV. One bad call can overshadow an otherwise well officiated game.  Considering the speed of the game at the collegiate and pro level, it's amazing that most of the time the correct call is made.

I think that Matt is on to something, especially in early season games...many of us who yearly retest or have mandatory rules meetings where "points of emphasis" are highlighted find those rules "top of consciousness" for the near future.....

 

I am remembering mainly the early days of the FPSR, where I saw or was contacted about the call being made many times in the early season after implementation and after being made a point of emphasis.

 

I personally fell into this trap by calling the FPSR once where, in retrospect,  I was anticipating the violation as I had been instructed to do, and not making the ruling after I was convinced after it being seen clearly. Again Matt is correct here by saying these issues are almost always impacted by lack of proper timing. 

 

 

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