[Dakota]

Ignoring your caveat and speaking ASA,

Originally posted by Shmuelg
The reason being is that I'm not convinced that "possession" requires "control".

OK, but ASA has made it very clear what their intent is with this rule change. I.e. "Catch, block, tag" NOT "Block, catch, tag." It is very clear in my mind that for ASA, the fielder must have control of the ball to legally impede the runner. In an earlier thread, I talked about the "re-education" of my instincts that was required in order to turn this simple change into actual calls in real-time on the field. I suspect that some of the resistance to taking ASA at their word on this is due to the conflict of instinct!

Originally posted by Shmuelg
Sam's catcher was in the act of fielding the ball, and IMO, had the right of way.

You're allowed to have an opinion on what the rule should be, but ASA is clear. The catcher did not have the right of way.

Originally posted by Shmuelg
FUBLUE's firstbaseman was also in the act of fielding the ball (albeit not the "batted" ball), and had the right of way.

Same as above, only even more clear. The fielder does not have the right of way in fielding a thrown ball, especially a muffed catch. Of course, the runner may not crash into this fielder, so depending on the nature of the "contact" you may have OBS followed by INT, where the INT would take precedence. But, the fielder does not have the right of way.