Umpires Rule Fly Ball As Home Run After Yankees Fan Snatches Ball From Athletics Outfielder

The Yankees know all about fan interference

The New York Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back in their third-straight win, but they got some help from the Bronx faithful.

With men on the corners and two outs, Harrison Bader drove a pitch toward the infamous short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium.

Oakland Athletics outfielder JJ Bleday leaped for the catch, but he came away empty-handed.

A fan with a glove snagged the ball from the right fielder, and the fan left with a souvenir home run baseball.

Umpires initially called it a home run, but everybody in the stadium knew there was a chance it could be called back. When umpires reviewed it, they found no conclusive evidence of fan interference, so the home run stood.

MLB rules state that if a fan reaches onto the field of play to touch a ball in flight, the batter shall be declared out. But fans do not have to let fielders make the play, as long as they do not reach over the railing.

The Yankees were beneficiaries of the most infamous fan interference of all time in Game 1 of the ALDS when Derek Jeter and Jeffrey Maier became forever linked.

Jeter hit a drive to right field, Maier snatched it right out of Tony Tarasco’s glove and a clearly missed call tied the game for the Yankees. The Yankees won that game, that series and the World Series.

Bader’s home run would not have left the yard at any of MLB’s other 29 ballparks. The Yanks won the game, 11-3, to sweep the lowly A’s.