Obstruction?

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by bluehair

F2 was doing what he's supposed to do

I hate this phrase. 99% of the time it means the umpire has no idea what the rules are (not necessarily saying that about you here). There's no rule that says if players are simply doing "what they are supposed to do", we ignore the other rules.

If the contact happened before the throw came in - it's OBS because there is no throw that is closer to the fielder than the runner is - which is the guideline taught for a fielder about to receive a throw... If it happened after, it's OBS for essentially the same reason. In either case, the fielder is in the path of the runner, without the ball, and not about to receive a thrown ball. Textbook obstruction.