[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by Buckeye12

I was officiating a game under FED rules. These kids were young (13-14)so that may help you understand why this situation even happened:

Runner on second, 0 outs. Batter hits a high fly ball to left field. R2 tags. As B1 is rounding first, F7 misses the fly ball and the ball skips to the fence. As B1 rounds 1B, he is obstructed by F3. R2 breaks for 3B and B1 is now on his way to 2B. The runners are now about 25ft apart. I decided that under the circumstances, I would protect B1 to 3B. R2 rounds 3B and B1, catching up with him rounds 3B also. Now both runners are between 3B and home. R2 decides that he can't beat the throw to the plate and stops. B1 passes him, I call the batter out; but due to crowd noise, he doesn't hear me and touches 3B and runs toward second. The throw from the cutoff man goes to 2B to try to retire the runner. R2 now runs home and is safe. Coach tries to argue that B1 should be safe at 3B due to obstruction. I explain that he is protected only until he touches the base I (as the umpire) protect him to. The defensive coach argues that B1 trying to return to 2B is interference since he was already called out. What is the correct ruling in this situation? Is it up to the defense to realize B1 is out for passing R2 even though they didn't hear me call him out? Is this some type of offensive interference? If this is interference, does the run score since B1 was protected to 3B "forcing" R2 to go to home?

Let's break this down.

Runner on second, 0 outs. Batter hits a high fly ball to left field. R2 tags. As B1 is rounding first, F7 misses the fly ball and the ball skips to the fence. As B1 rounds 1B, he is obstructed by F3.

Since this is FED, Obstruction is 1/2 Type "A" meaning B1 gets at least second base and 1/2 Type "B" meaning the ball is delayed dead and we allow play to proceed until it's conclusion. Also, if in our judgement we felt that B1 would get more than one base if he /she wasn't obstructed we can award more than one base.

I decided that under the circumstances, I would protect B1 to 3B.

If in your judgement you felts that B1 would get third base had he not been obstructed then you protect B1 to third base.

R2 rounds 3B and B1, catching up with him rounds 3B also.

At this point the obstruction penalty is no longer valid.

Why! The obstructed runner REACHED the base he /she would have been entitiled to had there been no obstruction at all. Also, under FED the runner advanced at least one base beyond his /her position at the time of the obstruction.

R2 decides that he can't beat the throw to the plate and stops. B1 passes him, I call the batter out; but due to crowd noise, he doesn't hear me and touches 3B and runs toward second. The throw from the cutoff man goes to 2B to try to retire the runner. R2 now runs home and is safe.

This is where it gets tricky.

FED rule 8-4-2g

If a RETIRED runner interferes, and in the judgement of the umpire , another runner could have been put out, the umpire shall declare that runner out. If the umpire is uncertain who would have been played on, the runner closes to home shall be called out.

Therefore, if you felt the RETIRED in this case B1 interfered with the play AFTER being retired you could call out R2 as well. It's umpire judgement and from your view B1 did not hear the OUT call and did not interfer so you allow play to stand.

Pete Booth