[Jim Porter]

2. It is obstruction if a fielder feigns a tag on a runner, but good baseball if the fielder (while out of the baseline) feigns that the ball is about to be caught on a play and forces the runner to slide or otherwise dupes the runner into thinking a fly ball was caught. Why is faking a tag always obstruction?

I agree that all youth leagues have made a fake tag obstruction. But, in pure Official Baseball Rules, a fake tag is not obstruction unless there's a physical impediment of the runner's progress other than just a fake tag.

In other words, a fake tag, in and of itself, is not normally OBR obstruction. However, if the fake tag is made while the fielder's body blocks the runner's path, then that is OBR obstruction.

This is an important distinction to understand for those of us who call adult baseball.

Thanks for your comments.