Obstruction?

[bluehair]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

The contact occurred after the ball had been missed - there's no longer any "about-to-receive"ness to worry about at that point... now we just have a catcher who is in the basepath without the ball and not receiving a throw. Easy obstuction and good call (not that it was necessary, he scored anyway).

I thought that the collision was occuring before the throw arrived and was the cause of F2 missing the throw. I thought the poor throw coupled with the collision before the throw arrived was reasonable cause to call obstruction.

But if the throw was missed right before the collision, then I think there is less justification for obstruction. In J/R, they distinguish between a batted ball and a throw. On a batted ball, the fielder needs to disappear or risk obstruction. On a thrown ball, the fielder need not disappear (as would be this case here, if F2 missed the throw before the contact). There may be a conflicting interp that I'm not aware of.

Mostly, I see nothing but a train wreck. F2 was doing what he's supposed to do which absolves him of obstruction outside of Fed code.