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Originally Posted by JJ
In NCAA it is considered obstruction if you block a basepath without the ball and impede the runner. The same is now true in FED. Here's the play for you to rule on:
B1 hits a ground ball to F5. He fields it and throws wildly to the home plate side of first base. F3 jumps for the ball - which goes over his glove - into the path of B1 and they collide. Obstruction? Live ball or dead ball? What about other runners (if any)?
JJ
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I'm sure your point in asking this question is that, before the new rule, we simply ignored plays like these - there was a collective shrug of the shoulders by everyone - and all were resigned that "train wrecks sometimes happen." Play on.
By the definition of the more stringent obstruction rule, there can be no question that the play you describe is obstruction. Yet, if you think about it, there substantively will be no change to the way we handle it.
Under FED, obstruction
always caused the ball to remain live. So that wouldn't change.
And we would now
award the batter-runner 1st base - but that's actually a fairly academic point considering the ball has just sailed over F3's head.
Substantively, nothing will change in the play you describe other than the fact that the umpire is going to say, "That's obstruction." Everybody will continue to do what they always do and the fact that there was obstruction on the play will not have changed a thing.
David Emerling
Memphis, TN