|
Interesting timing, Greymule, for a friend (college assignor/umpire) and I had a lengthly post-game conversation about the same subject last night. His position: if you are going to call obstruction the second a runner deviates or slows down, then runner are going to deliberately deviate to get an unearned obs call. My position: let's call it this way for a few years and if the runners start to take unfair advantage, then we will react at that time.
I fully agree with your statement: "I'm wondering whether the answer isn't just to call OBS liberally, with the benefit of the doubt always going to the runner whenever the fielder is where he shouldn't be." The objective is this rule change is to force the defenders out of the base path (prior to the catch). Let's get the coaches and players to change their game; we'll worry about them taking unfair advantage in the future.
WMB
|