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Originally Posted by NCASAUmp
Mike, I can't recall any wording like that in the book since I've started umpiring, but I think 8-5-B-2 covers it very well...
EFFECT: A dead ball is called and the obstructed runner and all other runners shall be awarded the base or bases which would have been reached, in the umpire’s judgment, had there not been obstruction.
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POE 35, 2004 ASA rulebook: "If other runners are advancing when an umpire calls time following a play on an obstructed runner, a rule of thumb for placement of the other runners is: If they have not reached half way to the next base, they must return to the previous base. However, if they have advanced over half way, they are allowed to advance to the next base."
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Disappeared in 2005. Personally, I feel the deletion of this statement is a mistake as it may create a problem with runner placement. As noted, the current rule (and RS) award other runners advancement based of being affected by obstruction.
Typically, other runners are not affected (directly) by obstruction; they are stopped mid-stride by an umpire calling dead ball. Thus they should advance or retreat based on umpire judgment of where they would have been
had time not been called. (This is similar to an umpire calling time due to serious injury and subsequently placing runners that were stopped due to the time call.)
In the OP, using the current rulebook, I could have judged that had obstruction not occured, there would have been no run down, and that R2 would not had an opportunity to try for home; thus R2 would be returned to 3B.
However, if I rule only on R2's location at
time of dead ball, I may have a different result.
WMB