With respect to the "exceptions" when an obstructed runner may be called out between the two bases where the obstruction occurred:
- The NFHS rule says she can be called out
"when properly appealed for missing a base or leaving a base before a fly ball was first touched while advancing. If obstruction occurred while a runner while a runner was returning to touch the base, she is protected".
So their rule does take the runners "direction" into consideration (which is reinforced by their case play).
- The ASA rules says she can be called out when
"leaving a base before a fly ball was first touched".
There's nothing in there about the runner's direction. But then there is this, in Rules Suplement #36:
"A runner leaving second base too soon on a fly ball is returning after the ball is caught and is obstructed between second and third base. If the runner would not have made it back to second base before the throw arriving, the runner remains out".
At least on the surface, this seems to say that the runner's direction is relevant. But it throws in another variable that the NFHS rule does not-
the umpire's judgment of whether she would have made it back safely or not.
I would prefer that we always be able to rule a play like this based on our own judgment of the runner making it safely back or not, rather than the runner's direction at the moment of the obstruction.
Let's say that the runner takes 2-3 steps toward third, gets steamrolled by F6 and is just lying there on the ground, unable to get up. Several seconds elapse before the ball is actually caught and relayed to second base for the live ball appeal.
There was plenty of chance (in my judgment) for an unobstructed runner to recognize the situation and get back to the base before the throw came in. But since she was obstructed while heading in the direction of third base, she's out. If she had taken even 1/2 a step back toward second before getting obstructed, she would still be lying in roughly the same spot on the field and be just as disabled, but she would be safe.
And what if she had taken a few steps off the bag, but was just standing there watching the ball-
neither advancing or retreating- when she got wiped out?
