|
Only one fielder may be protected from interference (not obstruction) at a time, and other fielders thus may be guilty of obstruction. It sounds like your BR did everything he was supposed to, except that it is kind of a mess.
RULING: If the umpire judges that F1 was the protected fielder, "That's interference!" BR is out and the ball is dead, runners return.
If the umpire judges that F2 or F3 was the protected fielder, "That's obstruction!" (against the fielder) Since no one caught the ball, we can sensibly award the batter-runner first base on the obstruction and other runners bases that they would have made, if any. Forced runners would be awarded their force base. Under FED, this is a delayed dead ball, as other runners may try to advance farther than the obstruction would award them, though not likely in your situation.
Follow-up question 1: Suppose F1 obstructs BR, but F3 catches the ball in flight a few seconds later? Do we just quietly ignore the obstruction? Under which rule?
Follow-up question 2: Suppose this was under OBR, and F1 obstructs BR. The fielders were trying to make catch which would result in BR being out, thus the BR was the runner being played on, correct? So the ball should be immediately dead? Again, what if F3 catches the ball in flight after the obstruction?
[Edited by Patrick Szalapski on May 11th, 2004 at 03:44 PM]
|