Pop up. While in the air ,the ball is outside the foul line. First baseman attempts to catch. With both his feet in fair territory he reaches over the foul line to make the catch. He drops the ball. Runner makes it to 1st Base before he can get control of the ball and get a foot on 1st Base.
Fair or foul ball?
Regardless of where the player is standing, this is a foul and dead ball. The fielder may be charged with an error.
**BeeGee **is correct.
From the MLB Official Rules: 2.00 Definition of Terms:
“A foul fly shall be judged according to the relative position of the ball and the foul line, including the foul pole, and not as to whether the infielder is on foul or fair territory at the time he touches the ball.”
How about this:
Runner on first, batter drops on into short center, fielder catches it off the first hop, sees the runner going for third, fielder makes the throw, runner’s path (from sweeping around second) carries him right into the ball, which hits his back or shoulder and bounces toward the pitcher. Is that a throwing error or some kind of interference?
The bounce is immaterial. If the base runner is out of the base path, interference may be called on the runner. Otherwise, he’d better keep running, because the ball is still live and in play.
Oh, and if the fielder is judged to have hit the runner on purpose, he’s ejected and possibly fined.
No. In this situation it doesn’t matter whether the runner is out of the base path. He will be called out for interference only if an umpire believes he deliberately got in the way of the throw.
As far as I know, the only time it matters where a runner is when he’s hit by a thrown ball is when he’s running to first and is more than half-way down the line. If he’s outside the three-foot lane when the ball hits him, he’s out for interference. If he’s inside the three-foot lane, play continues with no interference.
It will be judged an error if the official scorer believes any runner was able to advance because a throw hit the runner. In the given situation, it will be an error if the scorer thinks the runner would have been out at third if the throw didn’t hit him, or if the runner is able to advance to home because the throw hit him.
The runner has the right to run the bases in the path that is the fastest, which in going from first to third is going to require him to take a rounded path. He doesn’t have to and never would run the line that you would get by snapping a chalk line between second and third. Unless the umpire believes there was intent to interfere with the throw, the ball is in play and the play continues. I think the intent has to be completely obvious for them to call it, and I’m sure Tommy LaSorda is still hopping mad about the Reggie Jackson incident in the World Series.
Correct, with the exception of when he is attempting to avoid a tag, he must stay within 3 feet of that imaginary chalk line. Also the previously mentioned exception when running to first base.
This isn’t quite accurate. From the official rules:
So it’s not that the runner can’t stray more than three feet from the “imaginary chalk line.” It’s that he’s not allowed to stray more than three feet from a line between him and the base, wherever he happens to be.