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Originally Posted by BB73
Thanks again for another clarification, JXC.
Just to double-check something, though. This scenario is different than what happened in the game. If the umpires would have ruled that the ball would have gone into the stands without the fan reaching into the field of play, does fan interference come into play? Or since the fan in that situation doesn't affect the ball going into the stands, is it the dead ball/two base award, with no discretion by the umpires about where the runners would have ended up?
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The rule is that the umpires award the bases which, in their judgment, the runners would have gotten had the ball not had been touched. So if the umpires rule that the ball would have gone into the stands had it not been touched, then they would rule that each runner gets 2 bases at the time of the pitch. Since the fan would have to reach over though, it's not very likely that the ball would have gone out anyway, so most likely the umpires are going to assume it wouldn't have gone out. So I think almost all of the time, the umpires are just going to say it would have stayed in play, and award the bases they think the runners would have gotten. Good question.