WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK.By Bull Allen. October 6, 2007: It happened again last night. A fan in the upclose box seats took a catchable foul ball away from the Angels' catcher, preventing an out from being recorded, and the major league umpires let it pass. It allowed Boston to tie the game on a subsequent sacrifice fly.  This is similar to the infamous Cub snatch-away and the the Yankee fan take-away homer against the Orioles several years ago.

These fan interferences with the course of the game have to be treated differently by major league baseball. Because now we have three playoff games in which fan interference have effected the outcome of the game.

In fastpitch softball an umpire is told to rule an out when a fan interferes with a fielder's opportunity to catch a fly ball, the ball is considered dead, the batter is out and runners are awarded bases.(Rule 8-Section 2, N). If members of the opposing team or coaches in foul territory interfere with a fielder attempting to catch a foul ball, the batter is out.

In major league baseball, the rulebook states: "Offensive interference is an act by the team at bat which interferes with, obstructs, impedes, hinders or confuses any fielder attempting to make a play."  The operative word is "team." The batter is declared out in this instance. The rulebook does not cover fan interference.

Well this needs to be addressed by Major League baseball. Fans in the box seats are being far too irresponsible and unsportsmanlike in lot allowing fielders of the visiting team to reach in the stands to execute a catch. Last night it arguably cost the Angels the game.

When I was a kid, attending Yankee Stadium games, Bob Sheppard would announce before the start of the game, any spectator interfering with play would be ejected from the stadium. Since it was not clear whether the spectator in Boston last night was ejected, I wonder if they were. They interfered with the game.  Now I read in the Associated Press report that the fan, a 17-year-old was "high fived" by fans surrounding him, including the horror novelist. Obviously the Fenway management did not eject the fan.

Not good.

Sportsmanship and appreciation of the opposition have taken serious setbacks across all sports and especially baseball in recent years. Fans fight fielders for foul balls. They interfere with attempts to catch home runs about to go over the wall. They rarely applaud achievements by the other team.

But, interference with catchable foul balls is the worst evidence of poor sportsmanship. You are interfering with the course of the game. You are not entitled to that foul ball. If it's catchable, as a fan you have to back off and let the player make his play. The element of fandom that seems to get those up-close and personal seats does not seem to get this simple element of competitive sportsmanship.

What this will eventually lead to is the erection of protective plexi-glass in the box seat railing areas in all major league parks, to prevent fans from reaching out into the field of play and preventing catches.

Is that what major league baseball wants?

The umpires have to assert themselves here and call a batter out when a fan takes away a catch. The justification for this is if it is a home team fan interfering the umpire may judge them to be part of the home team. Often you will note that fans will shrink away when one of their favorites is attemting to make a catch.

Major league baseball has to crack down on this unsportsmanlike interference in the game and start calling batters out when foul ball catches are taken away.