Yankees: Gleyber Torres Falls Victim to Baffling Call

In baseball, they say you can’t assume the double play. As Yankees IF Gleyber Torres found out on Saturday, however, the same rule doesn’t apply to an outfielder attempting to make a Home Run-stealing leaping catch.

On Saturday, the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals behind home runs by Clint Frazier, Mike Tauchman, and DJ LeMahieu. A fourth home run, by Gleyber Torres, however, was later ruled an out after a fan interfered with Alex Gordon‘s leaping attempt to catch the ball.

There’s no question that the fan absolutely interfered with the play. However, are you so sure that Gordon would have made the catch? My guess is, you wouldn’t be able to say with 100% certainty.

In fairness, this play did not impact the result of the game one iota. Be that as it may, it isn’t the first time a hitter was called out on such a play.

Let’s rewind to game 4 of the 2018 ALCS. There you will find a similar situation albeit in more of a high stakes game.

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The essential question to this problem is: why can’t you assume a double-play, but you can assume that a fielder that is interfered with while making an attempt at a ball on its way over the wall would have made the out?

In neither instance, Mookie’s or Gordon’s, can any of us say with 100% certainty that the fielder would have made the play. So why grant the fielding team an automatic out in these instances?

To this point, we don’t see it as a real problem since the team that is being penalized happens to be the home team, and the fans interfering with the play are home-town fans. However, what happens if its a home-town fan reaching over the wall to interfere with a home run from the away team?

By calling this play an automatic out, your providing the home-team with a clear cut advantage. You are also sending the home-town fans the message that if you interfere with any ball, the hitter will be called out, no matter what.

Just wait until some home-town fan plays hero and prevents the opposing team’s run from scoring by interfering with a home run ball. For example, what if that was a potential Alex Gordon home run and Yankees OF Aaron Judge was interfered with resulting in an out for the Kansas City Royals?

There’s a clear and simple solution to this issue: any potential home run ball interfered with by a fan is ruled a double. You can’t assume the home run, but you can’t assume the out either. So, split the difference.