[greymule]

Of whom are you speaking? I don't know who would ever do such a thing!

Very good! I used to have a who/whom test. I'll see if I can find it.

How is B different from A?

In your situation, the runner remained upright to interfere, not to reach the bag (at least as I picture your play). And getting entangled with the fielder is different from simply getting hit by a throw. You can't read the runner's mind, but on a play like that, you don't have to. It's like sliding so far from the bag that you can't reach it with hand or foot.

MLB is getting stricter at 2B and would probably rule INT on that too, even though they seldom if ever called it in the "old days." The unwritten rule used to be that anything went except that you couldn't reach out and hit the ball, grab the fielder with your hands, or raise your arms to block the fielder's vision. Of course, back when men were men, the fielder would have drilled the offending runner with the throw, too. There were a lot of unofficial rules that were not in the book but were still enforced—not by the umpires, but by the players. Even today, deliberate and even unnecessary crashes at home plate are not cause for ejection. But something's going to happen later.

I've noticed the opposite in my softball experience.

You're right, Stat-Man. The people who don't know anything at all call everything "interference." The people who know that "obstruction" is a rule book term but don't know much beyond that will use it in an attempt to sound knowledgeable. Just as the truly illiterate will say that "me and him went to the game," the slightly literate will say that there was "a disagreement between he and I."

My particular two peeves of the moment:

The police found the victim laying on the side of the road.
He passed last night.