[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by EsqUmp

While I was not at the table when the exception (missing a base) to an obstructed runner being protected was discussed, I think that common sense should prevail here in trying to figure out WHY they put in the exception.

I'm sure that it wasn't to call a runner out who failed to tippy toe around someone who had no legal right to be positioned where they set up. Rather, it was to prevent an egregious disregard of base running responsibilities. For example, B1 hits the ball to the outfield and is obstructed by F3 just after rounding 1st base. We would all agree that she is protected (yeah, yeah, with some exceptions) between 1st base and 2nd base. Knowing that she is protected and can't be called out, she decides to cut across the infield and go to 3rd base. Let's say she's 10 feet from 2nd base when she decides this. Well, you need the exception to the protection in this case.

Same thing goes for no tagging up. You can't have R1 on 1st base leave when the fly ball is 20 feet from F8 just so she can run into F4 who is mesmerized by the play and hope to be protected. So, there's an exception.

You can't have an obstructed runner plow over a fielder now holding the ball even though the runner had been obstructed. Why? Because this isn't football. Safety and fairness to softball prevail.

What you also see is that a rule of equity (obstruction), that is, a rule to bring things back to the way they ought to have been had something not gone wrong, should NOT protect a runner who decides to disregard normal base running responsibilities. It DOES, however, protect a runner who is offended by the defense doing what the defense is not supposed to be doing and prevents the offense from doing what it otherwise would have done.

Just because we weren't there when the rule books went to print doesn't mean we can't use common sense and logic to figure out why rules were created, especially exceptions to rules.

The exceptions look to me like things that would make me judge that the runner would not have been safe (reached a base) even w/o the obstruction.
e.g., a shortcut to the next base means the runner would have missed the base anyway.