Fans interfere because they define the end of the playing area.

This is one of the truly moronic baseball things that's been hanging around for more than a century.

In yesterday's game at Yankee Stadium (Yanks won 9-2) Yankee SS Gleyber Torres lost a home run in the third inning because a stupid Yankee fan reached for the long fly ball that Torres hit to left field. The Kansas City left fielder Alex Gordon was approaching the wall and trying to make a difficult but not impossible catch. Catching it was no sure thing.

Initially it was ruled a three run home run. But after several minutes of video review by the umpires Torres was ruled out:

Flyball: LF/Fan Interference (Deep LF)

Three runs came off the scoreboard. Yankee manager Aaron Boone argued (like his predecessor Joe Girardi who was replaced for upsetting the players by being too intense) and was ejected. During the review Yankee announcer Michael Kay and former pitcher David Cone commented on the many replays and speculated about the rule and the possible rulings on this play. They were mostly guessing and the actual rule was never presented or referenced.

It will not be here. This is junk for three basic reasons unique to baseball and not in either basketball or football.

1. Playing fields are not uniform. This alone is moronic.
2. The edge of the playing area is defined by the area occupied by fans in most cases.
3. Fielders are allowed to make plays by reaching into the area occupied by fans.

Obviously, this is just asking for trouble, which may fit in perfectly with the most recent official embrace of bad behavior by players, you know, to make the game more appealing to young fans who really don't care or have any standards of proper behavior.

In other words, we're supposed to get all worked up about this. That was not the original intent but it fits in with sloppy thinking.

It's possible for a fan to run from the seating area in basketball or football and interfere but that's beyond the definition of the playing area. In baseball it's not. The fielders are forced to go to the fans to make certain plays.

The solution is simple and it also includes a more important safety feature I've been advocating for fielders to prevent them from crashing into walls:

Catching a fly ball on the warning track is not an out but the ball is still in play. As a practical matter the fielder would stop on the grass like a football receiver and reach to catch a ball that would land on the track. Obviously, this eliminates both fan interference and players dangerously extending into the stands.

Oh but wait. That would eliminate:
1. violent collisions with the wall, you know, like waiting for car accidents in road races.
2. the fielder timing the play to leap and prevent a ball from clearing the wall for a home run.

Hey, we fans really like that stuff, especially when we just watch a series of them as highlights and don't have watch an entire boring old game. What the heck?