Can a runner interfere without making contact?

Ground ball to short. The runner from second cuts right across the shortstop’s line and never touches him. The shortstop pulls up and lets the ball go by. The offense starts yelling, “No contact, no call!”

They’re using the wrong rule. Contact was never the standard.

Interference is anything that impedes, hinders or confuses a fielder who’s trying to make a play. A runner can do that by running through his path or stopping in front of him. He can do it by making the fielder change his route or hold his throw. Yelling “I got it” while he’s under a pop-up counts, and so does waving his arms in his face. None of those require a touch. If the fielder had to deal with the runner instead of the ball, it’s interference.

On a batted ball, intent doesn’t matter. The fielder fielding a batted ball has the right of way, everywhere on the field. The runner has to get out of his way. It doesn’t matter that he was just running the bases. If he hindered the play, he’s out. The ball is dead, and the other runners go back. The second out on a double-play ball isn’t automatic, though. In the pro book, the batter-runner goes too only when a runner interferes willfully and deliberately to break up the double play. A retired runner who keeps hindering, and an illegal slide, are their own rules. In high school, a runner who alters a force play can cost you two outs with no intent at all. The basics are here.

On a thrown ball, it does. A runner who gets in the way of a throw without meaning to hasn’t done anything wrong. It has to be on purpose. Here’s that card. I’d guess this is the line that players and parents blur most often. On a batted ball, the runner is responsible, but on a thrown ball, he’s only responsible if he meant it.

Then there’s verbal interference, which is real and almost never called at the youth level. Think of a runner or a coach yelling to make a fielder think a teammate is calling for the ball, yelling “drop it” or fake-calling a throw. High school rules name it outright, and the pro book puts it under confusing the fielder. The penalty is the same as for any other interference.

What doesn’t count? A runner who’s already past the fielder doesn’t. Neither does a runner standing still on his base who gets run into. The same goes for a fielder who trips over his own feet. The umpire is asking whether the runner did something, not whether the fielder had a bad day.

So when your runner sees a fielder with a ground ball in front of him, teach him to go behind that fielder. He has the right of way, and your runner has to give it to him.