Obstruction???

[TussAgee11]

I had one this weekend: man on third 2 outs. Past ball, catcher gets it and runs back to the plate with the ball in hand. Runner is easily going to be out. He tries to run around the catcher (not out of the baseline), and the catcher kind of slides his feet in a way the defender does in basketball. I could have called "BLOCK, 2 shots!", but instead I got the runner for player control, he extended his arms, and informed him that was his 5th foul and he need to go.

Didn't get any flack from the coach, the league president was there and said between innings, "thanks ump!".

[LMan]

Originally Posted by TussAgee11

I had one this weekend: man on third 2 outs. Past ball, catcher gets it and runs back to the plate with the ball in hand. Runner is easily going to be out. He tries to run around the catcher (not out of the baseline), and the catcher kind of slides his feet in a way the defender does in basketball. I could have called "BLOCK, 2 shots!", but instead I got the runner for player control, he extended his arms, and informed him that was his 5th foul and he need to go.

Didn't get any flack from the coach, the league president was there and said between innings, "thanks ump!".

[JLMatthew]

TexasAgee11:
That is a really funny way of describing this play...and being a basketball referee I think I understand it.

LMan:
You have to think like a basketball official...I will try to explain. (Tex, please correct me if I'm wrong)

"and the catcher kind of slides his feet in a way the defender does in basketball. I could have called "BLOCK, 2 shots!", " Typically on this play the catcher will try to dive towards the runner with glove/ball extended to tag the runner out, this catcher moved his feet to cause contactsimilar to a block/charge in basketball. The catcher did not gain legal gaurding position which is required for a player control foul on the offensive player in basketball...hence the block call...However,

"but instead I got the runner for player control, he extended his arms" This motion is not legal in baseball...ergo, runner is at fault for the excessive contact.

"and informed him that was his 5th foul and he need to go." In basketball you foul out on your fifth personal foul. On this play Tex jugded the contact initiated by the runner to be malicious, therefore the runner was ejected.

"Didn't get any flack from the coach, the league president was there and said between innings, "thanks ump!". Coaches and league president thought it was a good call.

So TexAgee11...did I interpret the analogy correctly? Peace.