Obstruction and coach's interference video

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by bobbybanaduck

there's no play being made on the B/R, so you have type b obs if you were to call it. on type b you can protect him somewhere, but you can't play god. he stopped running and returned to first, taking umpire judgment out of play, and subjecting him to being called out on that coach's assist. this actually was discussed when we got together. if we were going to change the call and call obstruction, what would the result be? 1st base, becasue he stopped running. then he would be out of the assist.

I think I agree with the ultimate call (runner out on coach's interference), but I disagree with the reasoning here.

The runner was impeded closer to 1B than 2B, so he returned to 1B. But it seems clear (after the play) that he would have made it to 2B had he not been obstructed. To negate the obstruction, then, I would have awarded 2B on the obstruction.

The problem with your thinking is that you've made the runner's decision to return to 1B decisive, which ignores the more important matter of negating the obstruction. A decision to return CAN be informative on some plays, but on this one it seems clear that the BR would have made 2B easily.

The important issue, by rule, is to negate the obstruction, and you may use post-play evidence (ball getting past F2, etc.) to make your award.

The outcome still won't be pretty: BR awarded 2B on the OBS but out on the coach's interference. Still, I think it's the right call, and I wonder whether it might have kept the O-coaches in the game (not that THAT's the most important issue here ).