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Originally Posted by Jim Porter
R1 was obstructed as he rounded 2nd. At that moment, the umpires must decide where to protect him. He will either be protected to 3rd or back to 2nd. Since R2 stopped at 3rd, the only place to protect R1 was back to 2nd.
R1 did indeed continue toward 3rd before he began his retreat. He was thrown out sliding back into 2nd. Without the obstruction, R1 would have made it back to 2nd safely. The time he lost due to the obstruction directly led to the defense's ability to put him out sliding back into 2nd.
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I've stayed out of this, but there are a few things in this thread that bear mentioning.
All codes but OBR have gone to "all obstruction is type B." In those codes, all play indeed does go until everything is completed and THEN the umpires place runners where they think they should go absent the obstruction. To stop the play would be, in essence, saying that type B becomes type A and that's simply not the case.
I treat OBR games exactly the same.
Saying that because R1 was put out by a step means that he would've been safe because the obstruction cost him a step is too simplistic in the case where more than one thing happens after the obstruction. No argument if R1 continued to third and was put out by a step there. No argument if R1 headed directly back to second and was put out by a step there. But R1 went to third, thought better of it, and tried to get back to second. Different story.