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USSSA obstruction
Greymule, I actually MIGHT be able to get the "right" (i.e. fair) result in USSSA just using USSSA rules, but it's a stretch. The relevant portion of the definition of obstruction in USSSA states: "Obstruction is the act of a fielder while not in possession of the ball, or not in the act of fielding a batted ball, or taking a proper position to receive a thrown ball (thrown ball must already be in flight), which impedes the progress of a runner who is legally running the bases."
This USSSA rule is problematic for several reasons, not the least of which is the curious "ball in flight" part (it must be that this is necessary but not sufficient to avoid an obstruction call, as there clearly could be obstruction on a long throw from the OF even after it's been released; not that ASA's "about to recive the ball" is ultra clear either, but at the ASA National School we were given one yard as a reference point -- the ASA rule book's statement about the ball needing to be between the runner and fielder is not especially useful, especially if the runner and ball are not coming from the same direction; bottom line, that's a judgment call in any association and if the runner is clearly ahead of the ball by more than a yard the fielder cannot impede the runner's progress).
Perhaps the umpire could rule that the runner's "progress" was not impeded -- thus no obstruction in USSSA -- if the runner had no intention of trying for the next base (i.e. the runner was not trying to progress, but was happy where s/he was). The problem is that I may not know that when I stick my left arm out as the lazy/clueless F3 stands in the basepath as the B-R rounds 1B. I always like to get my arm up promptly per ASA training to show everyone that I saw the obstruction. But once that signal has been given, I cannot undo it. Bottom line is that the USSSA rule is poorly written and players, at least at the league level, do not expect an extra base if the runner definitely was not going to try for that next base and there was no play on the runner. The rule does need fixing.
[Edited by Tap on Mar 2nd, 2003 at 07:16 PM]
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