Obs?

[Robert Goodman]

This question's been sitting here for days, so it's about time, I, as a non-official, step up to discuss what the issue is here:

When the fielder dropped the ball and it landed beyond the point the fielder first touched it, is that a batted ball that has passed a fielder? Or, as long as the fielder is still trying to play a ball he has a reasonable chance at, is the subsequent action a part of the fielder's first play on the ball?

Is the specification of the ball's location "a couple feet from where he originally touched it" germane? Could the distance up the baseline the ball rolls change an interference call into either a nothing or obstruction?