Dead ball or play on?

[cbfoulds]

Well, in THIS case, it appears there are no semantics involved: the ball is clearly held in an unnatural position by the fence. We don't care how easily it was removed, it's dead, award the base.

The point of my earlier post was that we [at least I] officiate on some fields which are less-than-perfectly enclosed, and sometimes there may be some judgment involved in determining if the ball is "lodged" or not.
"Restricted from free movement" won't necessarily cut it: the fence does that if the ball is just lying up against it. "Not on the natural ground" probably doesn't either: we've got some backstops where the ball could land on a wall in front of a fence, but off the ground, and be picked up with no more trouble than if the ball was at the catcher's feet.

All that said, "lodged" is a lot like Justice Potter Stewart's definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it."