Obstruction Question
 

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.

It's nothing unless the runner was or attempts to run to third.

If R2 got back to the bag, he wasn't obstructed....sounds like a small trainwreck. I'd think of it like the F3 who puts his foot along the bag to block off the runner on a pickoff to first.

I don't think you can justify sending him to 3B if he made it back safely to 2B.

I wouldn't call this obstruction in a FED game either.

Landing on R2 is not obstruction. Staying there might be.

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

This instance sounds like nothing. The runner got to the base without being and there was incidental conduct after that.

In a similar case, if the fielder obstructs the runner trying to get back to 2nd base-FED rules mandate that the runner gets third.

Joe

Had the ball gotten farther away, say into center field, and R2 had a chance to get to third, and F6 intentionally did not let R2 get to his feet, then maybe a case could be made for obstruction. The ball went over to F4's area, which could not possibly result in R2's advancement to 3rd, so I've got nothing.

Someone send me a message if PWL ever says anything remotely amusing or interesting.