Obstruction Question

[PeteBooth]

Originally Posted by BigUmp56

Getting back to baseball officiating now. I have a simple question about a play and would like to hear how you would handle it.

FED rules.....R2 only......F1 makes a legal pickoff attempt of R2..... Both F6 and R2 break to the bag with R2 getting back just before the throw.... throw is nearly out of the reach of F6 as he dives back.....F6 dives for the bag deflecting the ball to the area just behind F4, and in doing so he lands on top of R2.

I just saw this happen in the Oklahoma/Missouri game.

My question is do you call the obstruction? I know this sounds simple, and maybe it is. My hang up is with the OBS differences between FED and OBR.


Tim.

The problem with baseball these days is that most people including coaches think that baseball is contact free. Granted baseball isn't like fooball, hockey or basketball but there is contact.

In baseball, generally speaking the rule of thumb is this:

Was each of the paticipants doing what they are supposed to.

In the aformentioned, the runner was diving back into the base and F6 was trying to field the ball and the players tangled, therefore, unless F6 Purposely held R2 or sat on R2 without making an effort to get off we have nothing.

Pete Booth