Obstruction or Out of Baseline?

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

Hopefully, you will not be getting any help from the umpires here in trying to coax this call out of an umpire or avoid getting your runner called for intentionally running into a fielder when that's exactly what you're coaching.

Agree. It's pretty apparent when a runner intentionally heads for a fielder attempting to draw an obstruction call. Most runners who do that blatantly disregard heading toward the base, particularly when the fielder is already moving away from the runner's path after releasing the throw.

This particular play was just a case where F5 got too close to R2 when he threw the ball. He could've probably tagged R2 if he tried. And then F5 veered the wrong way (he was in the dirt when he threw the ball, and moved to the grass), probably because his F6 teammate was standing there.