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I agree with the safety improvement, but for me that is not the biggest reason I favor removing the "about to receive" phrase. My reason is consistency among the umpires.
I found it very frustrating to be partnered with umpires who defined for themselves what ASA meant by that - that they ruled it to mean "ball in flight" and even "set up ready for a throw yet to be made."
Yes, allowing defensive players to block the basepath in anticipation of a throw (or even to just block the path) is a safety issue. After all, softball ain't hockey. There is no "goalie" position. But for me it was more of a consistency of calls issue. (A selfish outlook, I know.)
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Tom
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