Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an Umpire Podcast.
My name is Daryl and I will be your host as we take a look behind the mask so to speak,
sharing stories, insights and experiences from the unique perspective of the baseball
umpire.
In this episode, we'll talk a little bit about batter's interference, when to call it and
when not to.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, draw me a line at BlueCrewDiaries
at gmail dot com.
So if you're ready, grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field.
Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire Podcast.
In this episode, as you heard in the intro, we're going to talk a little bit about batter's
interference when it comes to catchers and specifically when a catcher is trying to retire
a runner like at third base or something like that.
But before we get into that, let's go over some announcements.
First off, the big one this time around is the Little League World Series and Regional
Tournament umpire assignments came out just the other day.
There are a couple of umpires from the state of Maine here that made the cut.
So congratulations to all of the umpires that have been selected to work either the World
Series or a Little League Regional.
Let's see, next announcement is the umpire outreach clinics from Little League are still
going on.
As you would expect, you can find the closest one to you on the umpire registry at littleleagueumpire.org.
If you have not signed up for the umpire registry, I highly, highly recommend you do so.
Some good stuff on there.
It is, in my opinion, kind of lacking on educational content, but they are or seem to be working
on that.
One new addition to the umpire registry is an umpire rules challenge.
So if you go onto the registry and log in right on the main page, kind of on the right
hand side, you will see the background check request, Little League Rules instruction manual,
which is currently not available because they are updating it.
And right below that is the new 2025 Little League Rules challenge.
It consists of, I believe, 70ish questions.
Yeah, it's interesting.
So I think they give you like 90 minutes to complete it once you start it.
And obviously you can see how well you did.
I took it, I didn't do too bad.
I think I got around an 80 on it.
So not too bad at all.
Also the California District 4 rules videos.
They are still putting those up.
Let's see.
If I can type today.
All right, California District 4 Little League on YouTube.
Let's see here.
So they are up to Little League Rules Clinic number four.
So they usually do like four or five different ones, kind of break everything up, but highly,
highly recommend that.
Yeah, just go onto YouTube and search for California District 4 Little League and check
out all the videos they have on there.
They have specific rules for intermediate and junior Little League, as well as just
all the regular baseball and softball stuff.
So check that out.
All right, on to the main topic of today's episode.
This topic is a listener suggestion.
I received an email last week asking about my thoughts on a particular situation.
Basically a runner going from second to third, whether trying to steal or whatever, and the
batter basically just stands there in the box and doesn't move.
Manager trying to throw to retire that runner then has to work around the batter.
And of course, the defensive manager is calling interference on the batter.
There's actually been a little bit of talk about this on social media the last couple
of weeks, whether it actually is batter's interference or is not.
So let me read you the rule and then I'll kind of give you my thoughts on this.
So in your Little League rule book, it is rule 6.06.
A batter is out for illegal action when, there are a couple other things there, but specifically
C interfering with the catcher's fielding or throwing by one, stepping out of the batter's
box or two, making any other movement that hinders the catcher's actions at home plate
or the catcher's attempt to play on a runner or three, failing to make a reasonable effort
to vacate a congested area when there is a throw to home plate and there is time for
the batter to move away.
Now I have seen that.
I've seen a batter just kind of stand there in the box, knowing that a runner's coming
in from third and there's going to be a play at the plate.
A lot of batters think that the batter's box is a safe haven.
And as long as they stay in the box, they can do whatever they want.
They can stand there and do jumping jacks right in front of the catcher while the catcher
is trying to get around them to throw down to third to retire a runner.
And that is not the case.
I mean, it literally says right here, rule 6.06C2, making any other movement that hinders
the catcher's actions at home plate or the catcher's attempt to play on a runner.
So in my view, the way that reads to me is if there's a potential play at third, the
catcher is trying to throw, and the batter literally just stands in the box in their
stance like they're waiting for a pitch and just stands there like a statue, you really
can't call batter's interference there, can you?
I mean, they're not moving, they're not doing anything to hinder the throw from the catcher,
whether intentional or not.
And that's another thing I'll touch on here briefly.
But in that scenario, it's really the catcher's responsibility to work around the batter.
And again, if the batter makes a movement that ends up interfering, say they kind of
move to their left or move to their right, the catcher pops up, goes to throw on the
right side of the batter and the batter just moves to the right, even though they're still
in the box, that could be batter's interference.
Now some coaches will argue, well, he didn't mean, you know, he meant to step to the right,
but he didn't mean to get in the way of the catcher.
That doesn't matter.
The fact of the matter is the batter moved and that made the catcher's throw more difficult,
that interfered with the catcher's throw.
That is batter's interference.
Whether the batter meant to interfere with the catcher or not is irrelevant.
So there's, unfortunately, there's a good amount of nuance here because you could have
a batter in their stance, the pitch comes in and they just stand straight up like a
normal batter would normally do after a pitch.
But standing up somehow interferes with that catcher's throw down to third.
I mean, you could call that batter's interference because it did interfere with the throw.
So there's a lot of nuance to it.
Unfortunately, I think the, you know, whether it is called batter's interference or not
is honestly going to depend on each individual umpire and how that umpire interprets the
rule, how that umpire thinks.
Yeah.
So there's kind of a lot to unpack there.
I mean, those are my thoughts on it.
Personally, I've never had to call batter's interference because there aren't really a
whole lot of catchers that want to throw down to third.
Most of the time they'll, I mean, you see it, you know, first runner going from first
to second on a steal all the time.
You know, the catcher will get the ball, knows that this runner is going and you'll hear
like half the team say, just let him go, let him go, you know, okay.
A lot of times they do that if a runner is going from second to third.
So yeah, that's really all I got for this one.
Again, it's all going to depend on, in my view, the umpire and what they think about
it.
And you know, you may get the umpire that will never call batter's interference because
they don't see anything, you know, even if the batter moves to the side or stands up
or you know, or you know, reaches their hand out to wave the runner to third, you know,
you'll have some umpires that won't say anything about anything.
And then you'll have those umpires that if the batter, you know, stays in their stance,
but just kind of looks to the side, the umpire will call batter's interference.
So again, it's on the individual umpire.
I've really never had to call it.
And I'm sure there are times I probably should have called it.
It's one of those things as an umpire, you have got so much going on, especially if you're
behind the plate.
A couple of years ago, I had a game, it was about halfway through my first year of umpiring.
I had a game where from what I was told by my umpire in chief after the game, I was told
that there were like four or five batters that when they took a swing, they had one
foot completely outside the box.
So what happens there?
Well, if you take a swing and you make contact with the ball, whether the ball ends up fair
or foul, if you have one foot, at least one foot, completely out of the batter's box when
you make contact with the ball, you are out.
It's just that simple.
But here's the thing.
There were, you know, three, four, five, whatever batters that were swinging with a foot completely
out of the box.
And I never even saw it because I was focused on everything else that was going on.
I never saw them step out of the box.
I may not see them, you know, unintentionally interfere with the catcher's throw.
You know, there's just so much going on.
You really got to keep your head on a swivel, you know, and just be vigilant, be constantly
looking around, seeing what's happening.
You know, and again, there are going to be times where something happens.
And even though you're looking right at it, it doesn't quite register in your head.
Like situation I had last year with a runner coming in from third, the catcher was literally
standing on the chalk foul line, straddling the line 10 feet up the baseline or up the
base path.
And the runner literally had to like check up when he got to the catcher and then try
to go around the catcher.
And at that point, the catcher was in the act of receiving the ball, which does not
offer that catcher any protection from obstruction.
And as the runner started to work his way around the catcher, the catcher finally got
the ball, swipe tag.
I call the runner out on the tag.
I was looking right at it.
And in my head, I didn't see obstruction until the offensive coach came out and said,
hey, you know, the catcher can't stand where he was standing without the ball.
Like that literally he's blocking the runner's path.
He's impeding the progress of the runner without, you know, possession of the baseball.
And I thought about it for a second and went, well, dang, he's right.
I was looking right at it.
I saw it.
But I didn't think to call it because there was just so much other stuff going on.
And that's that's one thing that I still struggle with even two years in.
I struggle with getting overwhelmed.
I really do.
I mean, at the plate, I get overwhelmed.
I know I'm getting way off topic here, but at the plate, I get overwhelmed on the bases.
You know, a lot of times, you know, there'll be a hit and the ball's going wherever the
ball's going.
And I'm standing there.
I'm not.
I'm looking at where the ball is, looking to see where the runners are, trying to figure
out where I need to be and what I need to be looking at.
And I literally I mean, if there were if there were icons that appeared above people's heads,
you know, kind of like the light bulb when you get a bright idea, mine would be the little
circle loading symbol half the time, especially when I'm out on the bases.
I literally I'm like a chicken with my head cut off trying to figure out where I need
to be.
You know, well, OK, so the ball's over here.
So I need to go over here, you know, and I need to keep an eye on this runner.
And then but the throw is probably going to come here.
And I don't want to be in the way of that.
You know, I just I'm like a squirrel.
I can't figure out which direction I want to go.
And I just kind of stand there loading and then I end up, you know, not being in position
to where certain people think I should be.
And then I start getting yelled at by coaches.
And yeah, anyway, different rabbit hole.
So yeah, catch it batters interference as far as catcher throwing down to third is kind
of a touchy touchy subject.
Again, all all umpires are probably going to call it different.
My view is, you know, if if the batter just stands there, it's the responsibility of the
catcher to work around the batter.
Now if the batter steps out of the batter's box and ends up interfering with the throw
or even even if it's not like a direct interference, but the catcher then has to take a step, let's
say forward to get around that batter because the batter steps out of the box.
That's that that's kind of an easy one.
That's that's batters interference, you know, really no question about it.
But you know, some of the other stuff if they're in the box, you know, the box is not a safe
haven for the batter as much as they want to think it is.
It is not.
And you can do stuff in the box to interfere with that catcher throw.
If you do, you know, regardless of whether it's intentional or not, the the umpire may
may call it.
So anyway, I am getting well, kind of back on topic here, but I've I've rambled on long
enough.
So those are my thoughts.
Again, this this topic was a an email that I received from a gentleman down down the
southern part of the United States.
I forget exactly where he's from, but yeah, he just he had a question regarding this.
And yeah, so Birmingham, Alabama, that's where he is.
So thank you very much, Michael, for the question.
I also responded back to him via email.
We had a little bit of a conversation there.
So yeah, Michael, thank you for the question.
And as always, anybody out there, if you have any questions, comments, ideas for future
episodes like this one, let me know.
BlueCrewDiaries at gmail.com.
So that brings us to this episode's special little trivia question.
If you remember the last trivia question from last episode, at what point does the umpire
crew officially take charge of the playing field?
Look up rule 4.01 D as in Delta.
That will give you the answer for that.
But essentially it is at the plate meaning when the home team manager gives the umpire
their lineup card.
That's pretty much it.
Once the once the the plate umpire has possession of that lineup, it's their field.
So this month's question is as follows.
This should be a pretty simple one if you've umpired any games in Little League.
Does Little League have a must slide rule when attempting to avoid attack?
It'd be pretty simple if you've umpired at all, but yeah, you may need some of you may
need to crack open the rule book for that one.
So that is it for this episode of BlueCrew Diaries and umpire podcast.
Again questions, comments, ideas for future episodes.
BlueCrewDiaries at gmail.com.
This episode will also be posted on YouTube as well as all of the other BlueCrewDiary
episodes.
So feel free to drop a comment there.
That is pretty much it for this one.
As always, thank you all very much for listening and I will see you on the diamond.