Seattle vs Tampa Bay - 08-06-04 - Obstruction?

[Sal Giaco]

Atl Blue,
You state your case very well and according to the way the interpretation is written in the MLB Umpire Manual, you have a legitimate protest.

From the moment I saw the play, I thought Emmel made a great call to point out the obstruction. Believe it or not, I initially thought it was Type B obstruction and that he enforced the penalty incorrectly (see my posts on Umpire.org under the Professional section.

After a few days of pondering, I realized that in order to prevent players from doing this all of the time, perhaps Emmel was correct in issuing an automatic one base award. However, after becoming aware of the play described in the MLBUM, it seems like he may have "overstepped his bound" (not on the obstruction call, but enforcing the incorrect penalty).

Once again, thanks guys for the great discussion and I hope we have more like this in the future - I think we all benefit from each other's knowledge and experiences. Take care.