[mcrowder]

Fair enough on the protest.

To your last question ... I keep trying to say that the signal you read as obstruction merely means delayed dead ball ... and could be caused by different things. I do admit that MOST of the time if it's the BU making this signal it is because he saw OBS. But it does not ALWAYS mean that.

Regarding sending your runners - you may make assumptions as to the base a runner is protected to that differ from the umpire's assumption. Sending a runner after seeing what you read as an OBS call will only help if you entice a ball to be thrown away - kind of a slim chance when weight against the possible negatives - your runner outrunning her protection, for example, or the DDB not, in fact, resulting in OBS.

Most of us here have seen coaches make assumptions based on OBS, and have seen it go poorly for them. My example is on an F4 blocking the bag on a slide play into 2nd. I rule OBS and signal ... and the ball gets away toward third. Coach yells, "ARM!!!!", which is apparently his signal to his runners to attempt another base due to the umpire's signal. R1 gets up and tries to go to 3rd, and is tagged by F6 who had just picked up the ball. WORSE, BR heads to 2nd, and is tagged out easily.

Needless to say, after I told coach I had R1 protected between 1st and 2nd, and only to 2nd, and BOTH of his runners were out, he managed to eject himself.

Another I witnessed, while grading umpires - varsity level travel game being played under ASA rules. R1 from 1st rounding 2nd doesn't see F6 and they go down in a heap. BU signals OBS. BR is sent to 2nd after coach sees the signal, and makes it barely. F4 now has the ball. R1 literally crawls back to the base. As soon as she gets to 2nd, they tag BR again, who is now out.

That coach managed to stay in the game ... although I am not sure I'd have kept him in if I was the umpire on the spot.