One thing that REALLY irritates me on the field is when a player fake tags causing the runner to slide when they didnt need to. Its just one of my pet peeves that I hate worse than most things on the field. That's why I love enforcing the FED obstruction rule.

Last night we had a very windy evening with winds so high we could barely hear each other make calls. An attempt was made to throw the BR out at first but the ball got by the 1st baseman. As the runner gets to second, the 2nd baseman puts down a fake tag. The runner slides hard...I call obstruction - and I'm loving it! Unfortunately, during the play at first, the ball had rolled into dead ball territory, my partner had already called the ball dead, but nobody could hear it.

Now, I believe the intent of the rule for a fake tag is to protect the runner from injury when a player makes him believe he has to slide. We left the runner at second, but actually - besides the warning to the coach that the next player would be restricted - there was no penalty. Despite the fact that the ball had rolled into dead ball territory, wouldn't you think that there should be some sort of penalty here?


GRRRRRRR - I hated leaving him at second!

The penalty is that the next player to do it will be ejected because the team warning has been issued.