Is this obstruction?

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Larry1953

Mike, I will certainly go to a clinic as soon as I can. But the rule in question ONLY says a fielder in the act of fielding "A BALL". From my primitive understanding of the game a fielder can field two types of balls in the field of play: a THROWN ball and a BATTED ball. It would have been very simple for the rulemakers to have added BATTED ball or batted ball and thrown ball if they wanted to make a distinction between the kind of ball that got past the fielder and his impeding the runner VERY LIKELY causing obstruction.

Two of the first things you will learn are:

1) There are 234 (or some such) "known errors" in the OBR (and I'd guess many of them get through to the LL book)*.

2) The book doesn't always say what it means or mean what it says.

* -- Yes, it would be nice if they'd fix them. That's unlikely. The book is written only for MLB, they just let other leagues use them, the problems aren't really problems at that level, so if you want to use the book, deal with it.