Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Goodman
None of this gets at what I'm asking: Is "the base the runner would have reached" a bit of rule book jargon that includes the possibility that the runner had already reached it safely at the time of the obstruction? That is, is a runner who's obstructed while advancing toward a base and judged to have not been able to reach that base safely ever sent back to the previous base, or do the words "reached" or "obtained" limit the possible award only to the context of advancing, rather than looking backward to the runner's status before the play with the obstruction occurred?
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I'll try a couple of examples from my own experience.
Women's slow pitch. Batter hits a base hit to right field that F10 fields on 1 hop. As BR rounds 1B, she is OBS by F3. I signal and verbalized OBS. BR at this point now simply jogs to 2B where she is thrown out by 20 feet. She thought an OBS call automatically awarded the base. I put her back on first and explained the ruling to her coach.
Girls HS on a field with no outfield fence. R1 on 1B. Batter hit a gapper that rolled quite a way between outfielders. R1 rounded 3B and was OBS by F5 causing her to fall to the ground. I signaled and verbalized OBS. R1 scrambled to get up and took a couple of steps toward home where F2 was receiving the ball. A rundown ensued with R1 caught between 3B and home. Meanwhile, BR was 3/4 of the way to 3B. R1 was eventually tagged out and I called a dead ball. The award was R1 to home and BR to 3B.
A smart base runner who hears a call of OBS may well try to advance to the next base knowing they can't be called out between those 2 bases (exceptions noted) because worst case they'll just be returned to the previous base. Best case, the defense does not execute properly, and the runner gets to the next base even though they were OBS.
Now, say in the most recent example above, the runner did make it to, say 3B, even having been OBS between 2b and 3B. The umpire, when originally calling the OBS thought she wouldn't have made it to 3B without being OBS. But she did make it due to poor defense. If the runner now tries to press her luck and advance to home, and then gets thrown out, that out will stand because she's now no longer protected.
So it's not really "jargon". When you see OBS where do you think the runner would have made it without the OBS?
Hope that helps.