Interference or Obstruction?
 

1st and 2nd with 1 out. B1 hits ground ball to short and R2 stops to avoid being hit and distracts the fielder at the same time who catches the ball and throws to 2nd for the force out on R1. U1 calls runner R2 out for obstruction not interference. Side retired. Was this correct call?

rngrck,

No, that was not the correct call.

JM

Defense obstructs, Offense interferes.

Unless R2 was jumping up and down, waving his arms, and screaming "Tag Me!", not correct. How did R2 distract?

And if the out is made, how much INT is it?

with the exception of when the defense interferes, of course.

I miss the logic of this. F6 fielded the ball and threw to F4 for an out. So how was he distracted? And as already mentioned, runners don't obstruct, fielders obstruct.

Like, maybe, catcher's interference?

Some FED lover is going to come along and correct you, of course, by reminding all of us it's actually catcher's obstruction. He'll likely post a case play where R1 is somewhere other than first, too.

Absolutely correct call:
From UOROBB

7.08 Any runner is out when—
........
(b) He intentionally interferes with a thrown ball; or hinders a fielder attempting to make a play on a batted ball;
Rule 7.08(b) Comment: A runner who is adjudged to have hindered a fielder who is attempting to make a play on a batted ball is out whether it was intentional or not.
If the umpire declares the hindrance intentional, the following penalty shall
apply: With less than two out, the umpire shall declare both the runner and batter out.
(b.s) Offensive obstruction: OO shall be ruled when a batter hits weakly into a routine DP with runners on 1st, 1st and 2nd or 1st and 3rd or when bases are loaded (he has obstructed his teams runner/s, he is a rally killer), or if runner from 2nd runs so poorly that he can't even protect his batter and following runners by stretching the defense by employing aggressive baserunning tactics. The umpire shall signal time, and announce that's "Offensive Obstruction" and everyone is out.

HTBT; but it sounds as if blue was 0 fer 2 on this play, 1. thinking this was something (interference?), secondly calling it Obstruction.


Sheesh

Tell me these aren't related ;')

http://forum.officiating.com/showthread.php?t=42078

You forgot to use sarcasm tags...........


Tim.

I though I knew all the acronyms. What is UOROBB?

My guess: Un official rules of baseball

Un official rules of baseball, yes.
Which some continue to study.

Are there really, sarcasm tags?

<sarc>[sarc]Sarcasm here[/sarc]</sarc>