[urgone]

The National Federation has taken out the extended left arm/closed fist signal from the umpire mechanics. Here in Iowa we recently received our first memo from our high school state association saying we would be ignoring that and still use the signal to indicate we have a delayed dead ball and that we've seen obstruction. My general feeling is OK with that as the good coaches are familiar with that signal, look for it in obstruction situations, and
would probably freak out if we adopted the NF edict and signal nothing. My question for the forum is why did the NF want that signal removed? I'm having a hard time thinking of a scenario where using that signal to communicate obstruction to the players, coaches, and my partner would be a bad mechanic that somehow gets us in some other jackpot.