Example of legal, successful fan interference?

The Game Room
1

So the rules of baseball state that a fielder reaches out of the field of play ‘at his own risk’ (as opposed to a fan reaching into the field of play). This would seem to give the green light for a fan to interfere with a player for the opposing team trying to make a catch, by either outjumping the fielder to catch the ball, or even grabbing the fielder’s arm.

However, I’ve never seen fans do anything other than get out of the way of the fielder, even with something like a Yankee player trying to catch a foul ball in Fenway’s front row. Have people seen either a) a fan outreaching/outjumping an opposing fielder to prevent the out, or b)physically interfering with the catch?

Bonus questions: would physical interference get a fan thrown out?
Has fan interference happened in any other sport? (Beer-throwing doesn’t count).

2

Well, in cricket, once the ball has left the field it’s out of play. So if a fielder jumped into the stands to catch the ball, anything happening to the fielder or the ball would be moot: the batsman would already have scored 6 runs for the boundary. Similarly, in the codes of football that I know anything about, the ball is dead once it’s left the field, and (in Australian football or Rugby, where you can catch the ball in the field) catching the ball in the stands wouldn’t affect the status of the game. It seems odd to me that the ball can still be live in baseball after it’s left the field of play, but I now almost nothing about baseball rules.

3

Here is the rule:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/game_preliminaries_3.jsp

Here is an article: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_2_63/ai_112167131

4

Is the problem here the fact that the area of play and the stands are directly next to each other in baseball? Generally in games like cricket and football there’s an area between the field of play and the spectator area, so that a spectator can’t lean out and be in the field of play, while a player can’t lean out of the field of play and be in the spectator area.

5

Well, there’s always the Danish soccer fan in Sweden who drunkenly punched out the referee, earning a penalty goal to the Swedish team while Denmark was leading 3-2 and being banned for life.

Of course, that doesn’t match at all, I just like making fun of Danish people.

6

Yes, the seats in baseball stadiums usually directly abut the field of play. Except in the outfield, the seats are in “foul territory”, but baseball allows foul balls to be caught for outs. This creates the possibility of close encounters between players and spectators in fighting over live balls–on the field side of the fence, fans can’t legally interfere with the players or the ball, but on the seating side, they can.

Players are taught to “clear out” fans with their forearm and glove when fighting for balls near the seats, whether at their home or road park. Fans have a natural tendency to grab for balls (hello, Bartman), but if the player can get there first, few fans have the stones not to get out of the way of a younger, stronger, more mobile, and better equipped athlete.

7

In my experience it’s usually the players doing the majority of ball grabbing.

Enjoy,
Steven

8

Two words:Jeffrey Maier.

9

He got away with it, but his actions were not legal.

10

Wham!

11

Damn, that’s a great photo, but I think his fist might technically have been in the field of play.

12

Exactly. But that’s close: any similar cases anybody knows of where the blow landed outside the field of play? (for instance, in the picture, the fan could have grabbed the player’s glove and been, from an umpires perspective, legal.)

13

Steve Bartman? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t actually trying to interfere, being a Cubs fan and all, but he couldn’t have been more effective intentionally. :smack: