With a runner on second, he steals on the pitch. The catcher blocks the ball (pith in the dirt), picks up the ball, and the batter tries to move out of the way by exiting the batters box. However, this movement clearly hindered the catcher. The catcher never made an attempt to throw the ball to third, he just stood there.

In this case, there is no interfernce. Interference occurs when the batter hinders the cathcer's ability to filed or throw the ball. The catcher had already fielded the ball and made no attempt to throw the ball, thus no interference is called.

With a runner second, she steals on the pitch. The catcher receives the pitch, the batter swings and misses, and the catcher attempts to throw the ball to third base to catch the runner stealing. The ball hits the batter in the head. What is the call?

There is no violation, unless the batter makes any movement that the umpire deems to hinder the catcher's throw. Just because the batter was hit by the ball does not nessecitate a violation.

With a runner on second, he steals on a pitch. The catcher receives the pitch, the batter stands still, and the catcher throws the ball to the third baseman standing on third to catch the runner stealing. The throw was clean, but the third baseman misses the ball. He claims the batter was in his field of vision and couldn't see the ball released by the catcher. Is this interference?

No. Batter's interference occurs when the batter interferes with the CATCHER'S ability to throw a ball, not the fielder's ability to to receive the ball. Note, this statement only applies on a play at a base. When a batter interferes with any plate at home plate, it does not matter who is covering the plate.

Batter Interference

The Three Types of Interference

The batter can commit interference in three main ways: 1) Interfering with the catcher's throw to a base, 2) Interference on a play at the plate, and 3) Backswing/Follow through interference. The first two types of interference are handled the same in most rule books. The third type of interference is a bit of a misnomer, and is handled differently across rules (OBR vs NFHS Baseball vs USSSA softball). Notice, batter's interference occurs on the batter, not the batter-runner. There are other violations (for example, running-lane to first base) violations that the batter-runner can commit, which are discussed in other articles.

Interference with Catcher's Throw

First, let's clarify what this looks like. This interference usually occurs when the catcher is attempting to throw out a runner stealing a base. It can also occur when the catcher throws to a base to catch a runner taking two big of a secondary lead (i.e. a back pick). The interference is usually obvious. For example, with a runner on second stealing third, a right-handed batter swings and misses, and seeing the catcher getting ready to throw down, attempts to get out of the way. However, by trying to get out of the way, the batter has moved right into the catchers throwing lane and interferes with the throw.

Sometimes the interference isn't so obvious. For example, on that same throw down, the batter might stay in the box, but make a little shuffle step, or try to duck down, but still be in violation of the rule. The batter is NOT protected in the batter's box!

The rule in OBR, which reads similarly for other rulebooks, says: "A batter is out when he interferes with the catcher's fielding or throwing by stepping out of the batter's box or making any other movement that hinders the catcher's play at home base." This could include not only a catcher's throw of a base, but the act of the catcher fielding a wild pitch while a runner is stealing.

Of course, the batter can't be expected to disapear. The best thing the batter can do is not move. Don't try to get out of the way. Don't crouch down. Don't breath. Just stand there.

PENALTY: The batter is declared out. The ball is dead the instant the interference occurs, thus all runners return to their bases occupied at the time of the pitch. However, if the runner who the catcher was attempting to put out ends up being out anyway, the interference is ignored because it clearly did not impact the play. Additionally, if the batter is out (say on strike three) and causes interference, then the runner the catcher attempts to make the play on is called out (dead ball).

Interfering on a Play at the Plate

Picture a runner on third who takes off for home when on a passed ball. The pitcher cover homes, the runner is sliding head first, and ... the batter is standing in the batter's box, impeding the pitcher's ability to recieve the ball thrown by the catcher. This interfernce is pretty obvious when it happens. Unlike the last rule where the batter should NOT leave the batter's box, in this situation, the batter should run as far from home plate as possible.

The penatly for interfering on this type of play has two possible outcomes. If there are less than two outs, the runner is out (dead ball, all other runners return to their bases from the time of the pitch). The batter stays to bat. If there are two outs, the batter is out and the run does not count. The purpose of this rule is to maximally penalize the offense. For example, if with two outs the runner was called out, the batter would come back to bat the next inning. Again, if the runner ends up getting out anyway, the interference is ignored.

Backswing/Follow Through Interference

This rule varies across rule books. For now, we will only cover the simple case of OBR. In NFHS baseball, this rule is treated differently (and honestly it is a bad rule). This type of interference occurs when the batter swings so hard, the follow-through (or back swing) brings the bat behind the batter and hits the catcher's glove and knocks the ball out of it. In OBR, this is a dead ball (no outs recorded, all runners return to the base they occupied at the time of the pitch). In NFHS, outs can sometimes be recorded.

There is a distinction between swinging very hard and the bat hitting the catcher and unintentionally impeding him, versus swinging very hard and falling, with the body, into the catcher as he throws to a base to catch a runner stealing. The former is a dead ball (no outs). The latter is batter's interference and results in a dead ball with the batter being called out.

Examples

With a runner on first, he steals on the pitch. The batter swings and misses for strike three. The batter, knowing he is out, walks across the plate to his dugout. In doing so, the catcher is impeded and throws the ball into centerfield. This is interfernce on the batter. The ball is dead and the runner stealing second is called out for his teammate's interfernce. Any other runners on base would return to the base(s) occupied at the time of the pitch.

Frequently Asked Questions

With a runner on second, he steals on the pitch. The catcher blocks the ball (pith in the dirt), picks up the ball, and the batter tries to move out of the way by exiting the batters box. However, this movement clearly hindered the catcher. The catcher never made an attempt to throw the ball to third, he just stood there.▼
In this case, there is no interfernce. Interference occurs when the batter hinders the cathcer's ability to filed or throw the ball. The catcher had already fielded the ball and made no attempt to throw the ball, thus no interference is called.
With a runner second, she steals on the pitch. The catcher receives the pitch, the batter swings and misses, and the catcher attempts to throw the ball to third base to catch the runner stealing. The ball hits the batter in the head. What is the call?▼
There is no violation, unless the batter makes any movement that the umpire deems to hinder the catcher's throw. Just because the batter was hit by the ball does not nessecitate a violation.
With a runner on second, he steals on a pitch. The catcher receives the pitch, the batter stands still, and the catcher throws the ball to the third baseman standing on third to catch the runner stealing. The throw was clean, but the third baseman misses the ball. He claims the batter was in his field of vision and couldn't see the ball released by the catcher. Is this interference?▼
No. Batter's interference occurs when the batter interferes with the CATCHER'S ability to throw a ball, not the fielder's ability to to receive the ball. Note, this statement only applies on a play at a base. When a batter interferes with any plate at home plate, it does not matter who is covering the plate.