Fan Interference
Can't do a full recap today, but as you probably know, there were a couple cases of fan interference in the OF bleachers today.
In the first case, Lee hit a ball to the point in LF where the "well" begins, and the home run basket sort of goes upward and back, at an angle. A fan grabbed hold of a railing, leaned out, and caught what he clearly thought was already a HR, on its way into the basket.
The umpire ruled, however, that the ball was still in play when the fan touched it and since it wasn't interference with an on-field defensive opportunity, it was declared a double. Upon further review (and it took several reviews, and a blown-up image), the umps made the correct call. The ball was going to fall into the field of play, it wasn't a HR. The interference didn't hurt the outcome of the play. (Although conceivably, if he had managed to make the catch, perhaps the umps could have been fooled into calling it a home run, a la Jeffery Maier?) (Now that I look, Cubster has already nailed this, in the message board of the previous thread. But it's worth putting on the big board.)
For his efforts, the fan was removed from the game.
The more important interference came a half-inning later, on a high fly ball to the RF wall. With Cliff Floyd settling under it in an effort to make a leaping catch, another fan leans out, knicks the ball, deflecting it enough to foul up Floyd's effort to make the catch. The Umps miss this one. Adrian Gonzalez gets a triple (a run-scoring one at that) in spite of protests from Floyd and Piniella that he could have made the catch without the fan interference. The ushers make the right call, at least, and eject the guy. (With a little help from his "friends" who happily point him out.)
And a half inning after THAT, Fontenot hits a HR into the Basket. Once more, a fan makes a lunge for it. Hooray for crocodile arms, as the guy misses, and it clearly bounces in and out of the basket.
Conclusions:
- Seeing a baseball come near you short-circuits the reasoning process in most all fans
- Therefore, run an electric current through the HR basket.
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