Quote:
Originally posted by Cubbies87
Do you guys know where I could find the ruling about "once F1 releases"? What book I could look in? Just that way if some shouting starts happening, I've got a rule to cite.
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"Once F1 releases" might be a reasonable way to approach this call given the proximity between the pitcher's mound and the first baseman. This would not be reasonable for a throw to home from an outfielder. I'm not sure you're going to find this wording unless it is a specific interpretation for the pick-off play.
Intentionally placing your foot/lower leg/butt or anything else in the runner's path is not automatically an "act of fielding." In my opion, and it is just that, the arrival of the ball must be imminent (as it would be from F1) and the incidental blocking must be driven by the act of catching the ball. If the first baseman drops to his knee and blocks the base with his lower leg and then reaches 5 feet into the air to catch the throw, and then turns to tag a returning runner that is scrambling to find some pathway around his leg to the base... I'm going to call obstruction/safe (and in a FED game give the runner 2nd) - throw was not in time, runner was tagged only because he could not reasonably get to the base.
If the first baseman is straddling the bag and in the act of catching the throw from F1 that is coming directly at the bag, he has to fall to his knees and incidentally blocks the base and then makes the tag. I would call an out - the block was part of the catch.
In all cases this would be a Had To Be There scenario. The two cases I described above are an explanation of how I might approach such a play but each scenario has its own situational influences and justifies me being there to make a call.
If we get too hung up on stuff like this, the next thing you know well have QuesTek making the safe and out calls at first.