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Steve:
Your answer will depend on what organizational rules set was being used. Little League, for example, has gone the way of the NCAA wording on obstruction by removing the verbiage "in the act of fielding" from the definition of obstruction.
OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball, impedes the progress of any runner. A fake tag is considered obstruction. (NOTE: Obstruction shall be called on a defensive player who blocks off a base, base line or home plate from a base runner while not in possession of the ball.)
This makes this an easy call. Simply put, if the fielder doesn't have possession of the ball he cannot be in the basepath to block the runner off of the plate. There are provisions whereby he can move into the basepath to field an errant throw, but in your play it doesn't sound like that happened.
In other youth organizations playing under modified OBR the wording is the same as pure OBR.
OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.
Official Notes - Case Book - Comments: If a fielder is about to receive a thrown ball and if the ball is in flight directly toward and near enough to the fielder so he must occupy his position to receive the ball he may be considered "in the act of fielding a ball." It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the "act of fielding" the ball. For example: an infielder dives at a ground ball and the ball passes him and he continues to lie on the ground and delays the progress of the runner, he very likely has obstructed the runner.
If you were playing under straight OBR then this wasn't obstruction until, as Brian first said, the fielder missplayed the ball. I think Brian should have stuck with his initial call because as soon as the catcher missplayed the ball we now have type A obstruction and a dead ball. It doesn't matter that the runner didn't make it to the plate. The moment the catcher played on him after the drop the play should have been killed and the runner should be awarded home.
Tim.
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