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I can see your point that in most cases the fielder didn't necessarily PREVENT the touching of the base... But that is irrelevant.
An example to illustrate my point.
Both situations - no outs, no one on. Batter hits what umpire will eventually rule is a likely triple. F1 is moving to back up catcher and watching the ball, BR watching coach. They collide. BU rules OBS and decides on 3rd as the protection. Batter completely misses first base, through no fault of the fielders at all. Coach sees this.
Sitch 1 - BR makes it to 2nd and stops.
Both you and I would then call Dead Ball, announce OBS, and award 3rd base. Coach tells runner to come back and touch first, which she IS allowed to do, and runner then touches 2nd and advances to third. Completely legal, no issues.
Sitch 2 - BR makes it to 3rd and stops.
I would then call Dead Ball, announce OBS, and award 3rd base. Coach tells runner to come back and touch first, which she IS allowed to do, and runner then touches 2nd and advances to third. Completely legal, and again, no issues.
YOU (several of you) would ignore the OBS because she achieved the base you expected her to. Runner is now liable to be put out at first base on appeal.
So the way you are doing OBS penalizes the runner because she advanced an extra base during the normal course of play. Why? By what rule do you justify this?
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