Possible Obstruction

[Patrick Szalapski]

Originally posted by Gre144
If this guy slid 8 feet from the bag couldn't he be called out because of committing an illegal slide as defined by 2-32-1 FED?

I thought of that too, but IMO a illegal slide call would be very shaky here. The runner could easily have reached the bag if the fielder wasn't in his way.

Also, if interference were to be called, would the other runners return to the bag at the time of the interference or the time of the pitch? 8-4-2P says at the time of the pitch but 8.4.1 Situation C says at the time of the interference. I assume the latter would be true in the situation that you mentioned but I can't find it in the rule book. Can anyone give me a hand on this?

Since the ball is dead immediately on interference, runners shall return to the base they held at the time of interference, unless the rules specify time of pitch. I do not see the relevance of 8-4-2p here, and 8-4-2b PENALTY applies only to illegal slides.

P-Sz