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Originally Posted by jkumpire
"Beginning with the 2008 high school baseball season, fielders without possession of the ball will not be allowed to deny access to the base that a runner is attempting to achieve.
This change in Rule 2-22-3 is one of numerous rules revisions approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Baseball Rules Committee at its annual meeting June 12-14 in Indianapolis. The rules changes subsequently were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
"This rules revision will be very beneficial because it will minimize the risk of injury for both offensive and defensive players," said Elliot Hopkins, NFHS director of educational services and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee."
I think it is a bad rule, as written in the article, since they have gotten rid of the gray area for situations where a train wreck could happen. Now you are forced to call OBS.
It seems they are not taking into account that HS players do not throw as well or accurately as NCAA or Pro players, and there are times where F2 or F3 has to make a play for the ball. But when you see the safety rule thing in the article, what it says to me is that the runner's/fielders injury potential has now reached a threshold of such importance that we don't want F3 going after a bad throw as in the example, so F3 needs to let the throw go.
In other words, some lawyer somewhere thinks they can make a lawsuit over a play like this, so FED decided to call it OBS so they can't be sued over it.
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How is this supposed to be a good rule - players are doing what they are supposed to do and will continue to do so. What is F3 supposed to do or F2 on a bad throw, just let the ball go - not going to happen.
As usual with FED an attempt to try and make everyone think they can make the game of baseball safe for everyone.
What did they say, minimize the risk of injury??? That's a joke.
This should be just a trainwreck without intent on part of the fielder.
Thanks
David