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Truly, this rule is easy. Ask yourself first - is there a fielder in the runner's basepath without the ball? If yes ... then did the runner do anything that they would not have done had the fielder not been there. WRT to OP, ALL of the scenarios posited by WMB are OBS in my book. Had the fielder not been there, runner would have run through the base - the runner slid, slowed, contacted, etc - did SOMETHING other than run through the base. That's OBS.
Maybe I'm an over-OBS'er... I had 19 in a game yesterday. Granted, only one resulted in an actual base award and one resulted in a played on runner getting sent back... but I signaled it 19 times. After the game, a parent I know asked me what that signal meant. She was surprised when I told her. After game two (9 OBS's), she told me she saw what I was talking about each time - and then looked at me and I had signaled what she saw. If only coaches were as observant.
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"Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile." - Hall of Fame Pitcher Christy Mathewson
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