Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez settled under the lazy pop fly in Fenway Park.

Manny being Manny, though, he did not catch it cleanly. The ball hit off his glove and bounced into the air. Then, after it looked like he was going to really mess up, Manny somehow snagged the ball before it hit the ground.

The batter was out, and Manny threw the ball to third base, where an opposing runner had been tagging up, for what I thought was an obvious double play.

The reason I thought that was because the runner left as soon as the ball hit Manny’s glove. By the time Manny actually caught the ball, the runner was several feet off the bag on his way home.

I jumped out of my chair, screaming at the television as the umpire signaled that the runner was safe. The run scored on a sacrifice fly.

But he left before Manny caught the ball, so I knew without a doubt that it should have been a double play. The runner cannot advance until the ball is caught. Right?

Well, wrong.

Just as I was about to completely lose it, Jerry Remy, the color man for the New England Sports Network, stepped in to settle me, and the rest of “Red Sox Nation,” down. He explained the “first touch” rule in baseball.

When a runner is tagging up on a fly ball, he can legally run once the outfielder first touches the ball. He does not have to wait until the catch is secured to leave on a tag play.

As my cousin Skinny put it, the rule was a rule back when the Yankees were called the “Hilltoppers” and the Dodgers were called the “Robins.”

If you think about the rule, it makes perfect sense. A skilled outfielder could just juggle the ball as he runs into the infield, preventing a runner from tagging up.

So, even after the pivotal run scored against my team, I accepted the obvious situation after it was pointed out by the best colorman in the history of sports.

For a minute, though, I was irate because I did not know that rule — even though I had already watched an obscene amount of baseball by that time.

So, it is understandable that Butte Central fans were a little mad when something kind of similar happed in the top of the fourth inning of BC’s game against Dillon April 15 at 3 Legends Stadium.

Unlike me, however, they were not in the comfort of their own home, and the umpires could hear them.

With one out and runners on second and third, Dillon first baseman Trenton Moreni hit a high fly ball to left-center field. Sawyer Tackett tagged up on third base, and Cohen Hartman tagged at second.

The ball bounced out of the mitt of BC leftfielder Tony Stajcar. However, Tony’s cousin, Trapper Stajcar, somehow snagged the ball out of the air for the out.

Tackett and Hartman ran as soon as the ball hit Tony Stajcar’s mitt. So, when Trapper Stajcar threw the ball in for what appeared to be another out, BC fans figured it was a obvious inning-inning double play.

So, too, did the field umpire, and BC fans cheered the great play by Trapper Stajcar as the Central players ran into the dugout to bat in the bottom of the fourth.

It did not, however, fool home plate umpire Bryce Carver, who is so often the punching bag of baseball fans, even though he works extremely hard to try to master his craft.

Carver got together with the field umpire, and they correctly ruled that the two runs scored, and the top of the inning would continue with two outs.

Like I did when Ramirez bobbled the ball that day a couple of decades ago, some BC fans nearly lost their minds.

Fortunately — or, depending on your perspective, unfortunately — the video on GameChanger captured the puzzlement and anger of the fans.

“It’s an out,” one fan yelled.

“The ball didn’t touch the ground,” another said. Then more comments rolled in.

“Are you sh–ing me?”

“So why isn’t the guy on second out? He didn’t tag at second.”

“Terrible. Oh, my goodness.”

“He caught it. In the air.”

“And both the runs count?”

And my favorite:

“Holy buckets.”

Unfortunately for the home fans, they did not have Jerry Remy there to describe the rule to them. So, you have to excuse the BC fans, to an extent, for their outrage. They genuinely thought the Central players were getting jobbed by the umpire, even if the BC coach did not argue after he got the explanation.

I can sympathize with those fans. I feel that way all the time when I’m watching my son play baseball, and I have yelled at some umpires who are friends of mine. I have yelled at football officials and baseball umpires who I have refereed basketball games with.

Every time, I feel like an idiot afterword, as I should.

The thing is, though, when you are yelling in public about a call, it is a good idea to know the rule. From my experience watching years of Little League, American Legion and high school baseball, most people do not learn the rules before the yell at the umpires.

You probably shouldn’t yell at officials in youth sports in general, but you really should keep quiet if you do not know why the call was made. There is, after all, a big difference between voicing your displeasure for a strike call on a ball that appeared to be way outside than there is arguing an obstruction call.

From my experience, I would say somewhere between 98 and 99 percent of the fans at youth games do not know the difference between obstruction and interference.

We saw that at a Butte High game this weekend. A Bulldog fan yelled at the same umpire because he gave the delayed signal for obstruction when the runner collided with the Butte High catcher, who did not have the ball.

I’m not sure why the fan yelled, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t know either. He was probably just confused when the ump briefly held out his left hand.

I think it might have been the same fan who yelled at a Butte High infielder to throw home on a two-out grounder in the junior varsity game. That is why the coaches tell the parents not to coach from the stands.

Luckily, the player did not listen to the fan, though similar screams from the crowd seemed to lead to a Butte High player throwing to the wrong base earlier in the JV game.

Too many fans also do not understand the balk rule, but they always want to argue that call when it goes against their team. I’ll admit it, I don’t always know why a balk is called, but I usually assume the umpire who is intently looking for a balk probably does.

Fans are always certain that they are right, and the umpire is wrong — even though they know that only one of them has read the rule book. Even worse, they often act like the umpire is dumb. But it not usually the umpire who looks like a fool when all is said and done.

Everyone has the right to fan how they want to fan, and umpires have the right to throw fans out of the game for getting out of hand — even if it rarely happens.

But it is a good rule of thumb to know the rules before you start yelling about a call. Otherwise, you are going to be the one who looks or sounds bad on the GameChanger video.

Like with the case on Manny’s bobble, the call on Trapper’s great catch was pretty dang obvious to anyone who ever read the rule book or listened to a good color commentator.

Holy buckets be dammed.

— Bill Foley, who could tell you the difference between obstruction and interference, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.