Obstruction

[DG]

"Although R1 is forced to 2B, he is not violating any base running rules by moving back toward 1B. Therefore, he is making a legitimate (albeit dumb) attempt to run the bases. If F3 hinders him, that's obstruction (type B, I think).

Two points in support of this claim: (1) the onus is on the defense to stay out of the way of the runner, unless they're making a play, so when they fail to do so, that's OBS."

I disagree. As I said earlier, if runners can run backwards when forced to advance to create obstruction calls, they will be coached to do so, when there is an obvious out in front of them. The onus is not on the defense to stay out of the way of runners who are going backwards when they are forced.

I'm still not buying this as obstruction but for sake of discussion let's call this a Type B (OBR) and award him the base he would have acquired had the obstruction not occured. Since he is running backwards he would have still been out, so he would not have reached a bsse.

No way I call obstruction, in OBR or FED, on a runner who is returning to a base from which he is forced to advance.