e’ve all seen the look. Like a dear caught in the headlights, the umpire is staring at no one in particular, although both the batter and catcher are close by. You can almost hear his brain whirling, the questions flying around his head. “What did I see? Did he move? Did it affect the play? Where IS the play? Good Lord, why me?”

What happened here? Suddenly a coach screams, “That’s batter’s interference!!!”

Before we go any farther

The batter’s interference rule may be second only to the balk in its subtleties and nuances. It has been said that mastering the calling of this rule is a key indicator of an umpire’s success.

In an excellent article at eUmpire, Jim Porter discusses the batter’s interference rule and its interpretation in depth. We will not duplicate his work here. We’ll move off the pages of the book to see how it is applied, or, actually, as I believe is more often the case, not applied.

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