You can’t beat fun at the ol’ ballpark. And anytime you attend a game, there’s a chance you’ll see something you’ve never seen before. Right?
It probably happened again for thousands of fans in San Diego’s Petco Park on Monday night. Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts sent a deep fly to left field that ended up in the seats and was initially ruled a home run. It appeared to have slipped out of Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos’ glove and into the seats.
After review, it was overturned and Bogaerts was ruled out due to fan interference. Here’s the highlight:
So this one is really funky and fun, because it sure doesn’t seem like the fan(s) actually touched the baseball. There was a big whiff with both hands from the dude on the left in the black shirt.
The explanation on site was that a fan “reached out over the field of play and interfered with a live ball,” hence the overturn.
But can a fan actually interfere just by waving his hands in front of the fielder’s eyes and distracting him? It appears so.
Rule 6.01(e) states:
When there is spectator interference with any thrown or batted ball, the ball shall be dead at the moment of interference and the umpire shall impose such penalties as in his opinion will nullify the act of interference. APPROVED RULING: If spectator interference clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball, the umpire shall declare the batter out.
In this case, it’s essentially the old “face-guarding” penalty from football. Though the fan didn’t make contact with the ball or the fielder, the rule says that it can be interference if a fan “clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball.”
Given the way everything looked here, the replay review came to the correct conclusion. Padres manager Mike Shildt did not agree. After the ruling, he was ejected for arguing the call with umpire James Hoye.