The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball Blog

Tom (“aka the Baseball Zealot“) writes

Hi Derek,

I have a question for your site.

Last week I attended the Big Ten Baseball Tournament. Had a great time even though my Illini were knocked out after 3 games.

Anyway, I noticed that during Penn State games, I noticed something whenever the opposing team was up. Right after the PSU pitcher pitched the ball, a fan in the Penn State section would emit a short, loud, high-pitched whistle. The sound carried VERY well and it was obvious to me that this person was trying to distract the batter and throw off his timing.

Every two or three pitches, this continued throughout the whole tournament. It was rather annoying and I half hoped the umpire would do something about it. I understand the role of the fan is to cheer and hoot and yes, for some fans, boo and heckle. However, it was obvious this unfortunate person was timing their whistle in order to distract the batter (after a while, these whistles started coming during opposing pitchers’ windups).

My question is: Could the umpire crew have done something about this or is this simply out of the realm of their jurisdiction?

The Penn State fans were, for the most part, a great crowd but I wish that person had stayed home.

Love your site,

Tom aka The Baseball Zealot

In MLB, they certainly do. Under Rule 9.01(a)

The league president shall appoint one or more umpires to officiate at each league championship game. The umpires shall be responsible for the conduct of the game in accordance with these official rules and for maintaining discipline and order on the playing field during the game.

and as a matter of tradition, the umpires have broad discretion to throw out spectators who affect the play of the game. Technically it doesn’t cross the line into fan interference as defined in the rules, but umpires can and have historically been able to have fans re-seated or ejected.

There’s no rule I can find that directly and clearly gives umpires the authority, but it’s pretty well implied in 3.18:

The home team shall provide police protection sufficient to preserve order. If a person, or persons, enter the playing field during a game and interfere in any way with the play, the visiting team may refuse to play until the field is cleared.

Technically, no, they’re not entering the playing field. But that “order” part… is it an inherent power?

Take the Mets fan ejected and arrested for trying to blind players. While a whistle’s not as potentially harmful – it’s unlikely a player would suffer deafness as they might blindness – if it was really affecting the play of the game, and stadium personnel didn’t act, an umpire can ask them to, and they will, as in the Mets case.

On the flip side, though, heckling and noisemaking’s a long-tolerated part of the game. The Oakland A’s have drummers, Tampa’s got that one heckler with the loudest voice in Florida, and so on, and generally speaking, you’ll get tossed for annoying people with expensive tickets long before the umpire has to raise an eyebrow.

Back to the question: is there a rule that allows umpires to toss a fan? I can’t speak for college baseball, but at the MLB level there is not, but the umpires can get that done without the express rule. I mean, technically, you can stretch and say that in distracting a pitcher in their delivery the fan’s putting the batter at risk of getting hit, and if it’s a safety issue… well, obviously the ump could act. But I don’t think it’s ever argued that an ump can toss fans if they decide it’s necessary.

On a related note, I wanted to quote this, from an interview with Tom Swodoba as a Frontier League ump, because it cracks me up:

Have you ever ejected a fan? How about ballpark staff?

I have never ejected a fan from a Frontier League game. I have ejected a public address announcer for announcing over the system that “We really got hosed on that call.”.