About the disputed Jeffrey Maier “fan interference” homer between the Yankees and Baltimore in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS:
If this exact thing had happened in Baltimore in front of those (Oriole) fans, would the fans have booed while the Yankees crossed the plate? I’m thinking that they would have.
How would you have seen this if you were one of the umps in that game? I myself (albeit it might have cost me the ire of a possibly packed Yankee Stadium, let alone the batter and any runners ahead of him) would have had the homer nullified and called the batter out, saying that any homer that was artificially made by any means (including what Maier did) is no homer at all; in essence, I would have held to the rule that a homer must pass cleanly over any fence without any help.
As an umpire your job is to call the rule book, not just make stuff up.
The correct rule is to call the ball dead and assess outs or bases awarded based on what would have happened had the spectator interference not occurred.
Your judgment therefore must be based on whether or not Tony Tarasco was likely to catch the ball, not on whether or not the home run was “artificial.”