[tibear]

Sorry mbyron but I disagree.

The way I understand the situation, F3 attempts to catch the ball and then is then is immediately run into by BR. If F3 was simply standing on the basepath after the ball has gone by without any attempt to run and get the overthrown ball, by all means call obstruction.

However, in this case F3 can't immediately disappear from the baseline as soon as the baseball goes past him. You have to give the defense the chance to land and then vacate the baseline to get the ball.

If they are slow in leaving the BR path call obstruction but immediately after an attempted play this is a train wreck.

As for your last line about punishing the offense for the defense's mistakes, this is perfectly legal if for example the defense is trying to throw a runner out and it hits the runner in the head and knocks him out. The defense is perfectly entitled to simply walk over pick up the ball and tag the runner out. Obviously, in this example the umpire would have to determine that the defender wasn't throwing AT the runner but simply hit him by mistake.