Aligning the ASA, etc., obstruction rule with the ISF led to the goofy (IMO) statement in the ASA POE and other umpire instruction for other rules bodies that blocking the base without the ball is obstruction which led (IMO) to goofy interpretations on the field where OBS is being called when the runner is 40 feet away.
The problem is not the rule change, it is the rule change followed by confusing, wrong, and incorrect teaching and broad-sweeping statements in POEs without clarifying that they only apply when the runner is actually being impeded.
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Tom
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