The Official Forum - Babe Ruth Obstruction Rule

The Official Forum (https://forum.officiating.com/)

- Baseball (https://forum.officiating.com/baseball/)

- - Babe Ruth Obstruction Rule (https://forum.officiating.com/baseball/58646-babe-ruth-obstruction-rule.html)

Babe Ruth Obstruction Rule

I am a very experienced softball official. I am working a Babe Ruth 15u tournament this weekend and do not have a Babe Ruth rule book. Could someone state the Obstruction rule for me? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncaaumpdj (Post 686182)

Probably the the same as MLB. If not for sure, ask someone when you get there.

Official Rules | MLB.com: Official info

http://www.baberuthbaseball.org/

Quote:

7.06 When obstruction occurs, the umpire shall call or signal "Obstruction."

(a) If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batter runner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire's judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out. When a play is being made on an obstructed runner, the umpire shall signal obstruction in the same manner that he calls "Time," with both hands overhead. The ball is immediately dead when this signal is given; however, should a thrown ball be in flight before the obstruction is called by the umpire, the runners are to be awarded such bases on wild throws as they would have been awarded had not obstruction occurred. On a play where a runner was trapped between second and third and obstructed by the third baseman going into third base while the throw is in flight from the shortstop, if such throw goes into the dugout the obstructed runner is to be awarded home base. Any other runners on base in this situation would also be awarded two bases from the base they last legally touched before obstruction was called.

(b) If no play is being made on the obstructed runner, the play shall proceed until no further action is possible. The umpire shall then call "Time" and impose such penalties, if any, as in his judgment will nullify the act of obstruction. Under 7.06 (b) when the ball is not dead on obstruction and an obstructed runner advances beyond the base which, in the umpire's judgment, he would have been awarded because of being obstructed, he does so at his own peril and may be tagged out. This is a judgment call.

NOTE: The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.

In a nutshell it's this:
1) Baserunner has priority unless fielder is fielding the ball or recieving a throw.
2) If play is being made on obstructed runner..dead ball with at least 1 base awarded.
3) If no play on obstructed runner...delayed dead ball, award runner(s) how ever many bases you feel is right.

Before fleeing the taxes of the Garden State, I served as UIC for two Babe Ruth softball state tournaments held in Hamilton, New Jersey, whose 12-year-olds won the national title in 2008. I had to do what I could to prepare our ASA umpires, who were completely ignorant of Babe Ruth rules. (Luckily, the Babe Ruth national headquarters are nearby, so it wasn't hard to get the rules "pamphlets.")

Except for obvious softball-specific stuff, most of the Babe Ruth softball rule book, especially regarding runners, is lifted verbatim from the OBR book. (Whoever did this was unaware that the OBR book is nowhere near comprehensive; OBR umpires have to rely heavily on interpretations and guidelines not in the actual rulebook but in the PBUC, the J/R, Evans, etc.) As I remember, OBS and INT in BR are handled exactly the same as in OBR. Since both involve concepts (e.g., Type A and Type B OBS) that are not part of softball world, I was praying that these issues never came up.

In one tournament, we had 11 teams from throughout the state, and not a single coach was aware that appeals for bases missed or left too soon are handled as in OBR (e.g., no dead ball appeals; the ball has to be put back in play). The crash rule in Babe Ruth also bears virtually no resemblance to the Fed or ASA rule. The look-back rule is similar but not identical.

As BU in one game, I was personally faced with one difference. R1 on 2B, R2 on 1B, no outs. B3 hits a pop fly to short center. R1 runs halfway to 3B, but the coach fears the ball will be caught and tells her to go back to 2B. F8 fields the ball on one hop as both R1 and R2 are scrambling to 2B with F4 covering. R1 then sees that the ball dropped and reverses direction just as F8 decides to throw to 3B for the force on R1. R1 crashes into F6 in the baseline, a couple of seconds before F5 takes the throw at 3B.

In ASA, that would be OBS on F6. But in OBR (and therefore in Babe Ruth), the collision is disregarded, since R1 obviously would have been out regardless. (The Hamilton coach questioned the call but accepted my explanation, particularly since his team was clearly on its way to a mercy killing.)

OBS and INT are difficult and complicated enough in OBR, even for experienced baseball umpires. All I could do as UIC was give the softball umpires a page of rules differences and hope things went well.

I still have that page if anyone thinks it might be useful.

(This is all assuming no changes in Babe Ruth rules since 2008.)

Oops. I posted this here because I forgot what site I was on. The OP said, "I'm an experienced softball official," so I assumed this was about softball.