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A bunch of us (all umpires enjoying an awesome Saturday off) were watching the Northwestern/Iowa game when one of my friends commented on the speed of Iowa's running back. He said he would love to see that guy on the diamond. Another of the guys said that no matter how fast a runner is, a good arm will catch him. That got us into a debate about which catchers had the best arms and whether or not the best arms would catch the best stealers. The first guy told us that he was umpiring a game in Indiana and the catcher had a laser. The first baseman would taunt the runner, telling him to stay put because the catcher would nail him before he got within ten feet of the bag. The runners would take the bait and pretty soon, the first baseman is saying, "So, go if you can do it. Come on, go, go, go!" He started this with a bunch of the runners and egged them on. The offensive coach wanted the base umpire (not my friend) to make him stop telling them to go. The base umpire said that he had no problem with what he was saying. The coach wanted him to tell him to shut up because he was becoming a distraction out there. The coach said that when he says go, especially on a dropped pitch, the runner could confuse it for the first base coach. Immediately I jumped in with our running myth about verbal obstruction and the debate livened up. If you had a chatty first baseman and see him acting this way, do you call Verbal Obstruction on him?
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