Quote:
Originally posted by WestMichBlue
NFHS 2002/2003 Umpires Manual, page 47.
"Obstruction is the act of a fielder who is in the base path without the ball, and is not attempting to field a batted ball or about to receive a thrown ball, and who impedes the progress of a runner. A general rule of thumb, on "about to receive a thrown ball philosophies," is that when the ball is beween the runner and the fielder catching it, the fielder is "about to receive it."
So - an NHFS umpire can use his own judgement of about to receive, or he can use the offered "rule of thumb" interpretation.
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I know I'm going straight to hell
for bringing the "other game" into this discussion, but only doing so for demonstrative purposes.
The only problem I would have with that is the baseball application to a softball rule. Remember, a lot of the Fed softball rules were drawn from the baseball side of Fed. Every little ball umpire I've had this discussion with insist that the defender is about to receive the ball once their teammate has released the throw in their direction, not when it gets between the runner and fielder.
Quote:
IMO (as you well know, Dakota!) there never has been "about to receive" as long as that "closer to fielder" interpretation has been around. All ASA did was clean up the language and officially get rid of "about to receive" in 2004. I assume that NFHS and others will follow in 2005.
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Say what!? The "about to receive" has been in ASA for as long as I've been working softball and I never had a problem with it. The "ball closer to the fielder than the runner" was basically introduced because too many could not grasp the geometric dynamics of the situation if the ball and the runner were not coming from the same direction. All ASA did was aline themselves with the international rule and it didn't happen overnight. It had nothing to do with the wording and everything to do with safety.