Obstruction.....

[phillips.alex]

i personally have called obstruction usually every 2-3 games. Most of the time there is no reason to enforce anything as the runner will make the base i protect them to....I only ever really see it at first base, but i've seen one at the plate as well.....

[LMan]

What has happened since?

Lawyers.

[LMan]

Thanks for the replies (the good ones, anyways)

oh, you mean the ones that agreed with your preconceptions?

[phillips.alex]

no, i mean the ones that were informative and on topic.

[David B]

Originally posted by greymule
I understand why so many posters are concerned with obstruction. I have to deal with it, too, several times a year, and I admit that on many calls, I'm not really sure. I probably err on the side of NOT calling OBS when I should.

However--

I played LL in 1960-1961, school 1963-1966, Legion 1964-1967, college 1967-1970, and semipro through 1972. In those many games, and in many others I simply watched, I cannot remember ever having seen a single obstruction call. I also can't remember any manager claiming to an umpire that he should have called OBS but failed to. Of course, my memory might be faulty, but OBS seemed like something that existed purely in theory, not in reality.

What has happened since?

Coaches today don't teach the kids to stay out of the way.
And when we used to play, if you got in the way, you got knocked silly.

Today if a kid gets run over, the coaches go crazy, the kids gets treatment for 15 minutes and the parents call a lawyer.

I played 1B for many years and learned really quick stay out of the way or get run over.

Same with leaving my foot on the bag, it didn't take long to realize they were trying to step on my foot.

Thansk
David