Umpires. Would you call interference on this play?

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Feb 13, 2021
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12.17.2.2 The base runner may not interfere with a fielder attempting to throw the ball.

No reference to sliding or not sliding, in or out of base path. Also, no mention of intent or contact required

Also:

12.17.2.4 The base runner who immediately precedes the batter-runner and who is not yet out may not intentionally interfere, in the umpire’s judgment, with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or to throw a ball in an attempt to complete a play.
EFFECT—The ball is dead, the batter-runner and base runner are out, and each other runner must return to the last base legally touched at the time of the interference.

Also this:

12.17.3.1 An offensive player, who no longer has status (a retired runner or a runner who has scored), may not interfere with a defensive player making a play on an active runner.

EFFECT—(12.17.3.1 and 12.17.3.2)—The ball is dead, and the runner closest to home plate at the time of the interference shall be declared out. Each base runner must return to the last base legally touched at the time of the interference, unless forced to advance.


Short answer: no slide required, but if you do slide and choose to pop up you had better make sure you don't interfere
 
Jul 27, 2021
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The ongoing shortage of umpires and people interested in umpiring will only make this worse going forward.
I don't see this changing soon. There has been quite a bit of talk about shortage of officials for the few years yet no effort to change that. When will we hit critical mass.....5 years? Maybe when tournaments like Sparkler and Mount Rushmore can't happen.
 
May 29, 2015
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Short answer: no slide required, but if you do slide and choose to pop up you had better make sure you don't interfere

In some baseball (I know, but for context) codes a pop-up slide is expressly illegal on a force play slide rule. No, contrary to even umpires messing it up, a Force Play Slide Rule does NOT say you have to slide, just that you have to slide legally IF you slide. Those baseball codes include not allowing a pop-up to break up a double-play.

The fact that @Sparky Guy keeps saying "I think it was a designed play" furthers my belief that it was interference and intentional to boot. If you are seeing that, you should see why it is interference. I agree it looks designed.

The original video is down, so please correct me if I am misremembering this: the runner does not pop-up and stand straight up on second base. She never gets over second base. She pops-up staying on the 1B side of the bag, and even makes a slight move that way as her weight settles. As I said before, a true pop-up is designed to take you up and over so you can keep moving. Maybe I am wrong.
 
Jul 22, 2015
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There has been quite a bit of talk about shortage of officials for the few years yet no effort to change that.
Most chapters have been trying to recruit for years with relatively little success. I don't know the average age of a softball umpire but I would guess that it is north of 60 in our area. That isn't sustainable for very long
 
May 29, 2015
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Runner out ...
1679114375272.png

Throwing lane ...
1679114525850.png

Fielder never looks at first base. She is looking home the whole time. She has to move all the way out here to have a lane to throw; two steps around the runner who is still strangely on this side of the base.
1679114685346.png
 
Dec 11, 2010
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This is a big sack of nothing.

I have seen Notre Dame play. There is no rocket science base running going on there.

If the second baseman doesn’t want a runner up in her grill, step through the bag and throw from the other side where the runner won’t be. Instead she arrives at the bag, sets up her camp and becomes The Great Monolithic Statue.

There is nothing to call here. There isn’t even anything to argue about.
 
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Feb 13, 2021
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Correct about nothing to argue about. Plainly an interference by retired runner call, no run scores and third out on the runner at the plate. What MIBs stills don't show is the retired runner leaning into the fielder's throwing lane AWAY from the bag back towards first.

If the runner stays down and the fielder trips over her during the throw, then there is an argument for incidental contact, but this is pretty cut and dried interference.
 
Jun 8, 2016
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Either she is quite slow or the kid on 3B took her sweet time breaking for home..Once it took that first hop she should have been gone even if she wasn’t going on contact. Oh...and no interference. Now if the kid had done this:





different story.. :LOL:
 
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