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Originally Posted by DG
If the catcher is making a play, ie receiving a thrown ball, and the play is imminent, he can block the plate. What is imminent you might say? A rule of thumb is the ball is in flight, directly at the catcher and in the air over the dirt cutout, which should be about 13 feet from the plate. If the catcher was where he needed to be to catch the throw and it was in flight 13 feet from the plate, then I would not rule obstruction. The block, the catch and the tag would have to be bang, bang, bang. It if was block, pause, catch, tag then maybe obstruction is the correct call.
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Based on this, I would say the umpire made a very good call. Very close where the throw was when the catcher blocked, but in that situation I would figure that the umpire would err on the side of caution in making that call.
Incidentally, the ball was hit up the middle, so F6 had to go to his left to field the ball before turning and throwing home. No doubt R3 should have gone home on that - took a great play by the SS and the catcher to get him.