Obstruction Q - holding a runner on 3rd base

[DG]

Originally Posted by JeffM

I have a follow up question (which actually prompted the original question)

This play happened in a Rec league game. My son is playing 3rd base. The opposing team's 3rd base coach was an assistant coach on my son's basketball team which I coached. So, my son knows him as a coach.

My son was "holding the runner on" by straddling 3rd base with his right foot blocking about half of the bag. (He started doing this on a travel team.)

The 3rd base coach's son is at the plate and is a pull hitter. In his previous at bat, he hit a line drive over the 3rd baseman's head. His son is batting and the coach appears to be talking to my son and telling him how to play the position. It is a rec league so it wouldn't be too unusual for a coach of one team to say something to a player on another team. I think the coach had played baseball in college. I don't know what was said, but on the subsequent pitch, the batter hits a line drive well over my son's head. (It did not affect the play.)

Later in the game, one of my son's teammates was holding the runner on with a different batter. The defensive player was clearly holding him on incorrectly, but the coach didn't say a word.

In retrospect, it seems like the coach may have been trying to distract the fielder when his pull-hitting son was batting. If so, is he allowed to distract the fielder? (I know in basketball, it would be considered "disconcerting" for a coach to try to distract a free throw shooter of the other team.)

Or, the coach had some personal familiarity with your kid as an assistant on nhis basketball team and was willing to give him some advice, such as "my son is a pull hitter, so heads up". Surely your son knew the batter was the coaches son also. So lighten up on the suspicions.

It is very unusual for the coach of one team to provide coaching instruction to players of the opposing team. It is not unusual to talk to other players they know personally, tell them good play when they have made one, etc.