Baseball rules corner: non-playing personnel sometimes involved in interference calls.

RULE 3.15 ALLOWS BAT BOYS AND bat girls on the playing field during games. If they are inadvertently struck by batted or thrown balls or unintentionally make contact with a player on the field, the ball is alive and in play. Conversely, if they intentionally interfere with play by purposely handling a batted or thrown ball or commit some other act of intentional interference, the ball becomes dead and umpires are authorized to make the proper awards had the interference not occurred.

All this came to light during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series when bat boy Darren Baker, the 3-year-old son of Giants' manager Dusty Baker, wandered into the action in the area of home plate. Darren, excited to retrieve the bat of his favorite player, Kenny Lofton, nearly got himself hurt and almost interfered with the ensuing play. J.T. Snow, who had just scored, scooped up Darren before David Bell came charging across the plate.

Thank God, Darren--all 38 pounds and 43 inches--wasn't injured and fortunately didn't interfere with the play, which could have been a tangled mess.

Because of Darren's innocent actions, major league baseball implemented an age requirement of 14 for batboys. It is referred to as the "Darren Baker Rule."

Authorized on-the-field personnel, which includes players, coaches, managers, news photographers, umpires, uniformed officers of the law, and watchmen or other employees of the home club, are all a part of the baseball rules story.

In the Astros-Braves game played on August 10, 1991, Houston third baseman Ken Caminiti was chasing a foul ball down the third base line when he collided with a security guard in the second inning. The guard, seated along the left field line in the Astro-dome, picked up his stool and ran for daylight in an attempt to avoid Caminiti. But his efforts were wasted as he and Caminiti collided like two mountain goats.

The night before, a security guard at Candlestick Park in San Francisco blocked the path of Giants' left fielder Kevin Mitchell as he pursued a foul ball.