Protection Between Bases with No other Runners

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by RKBUmp

Irish, I believe I PMed you about it on the NFHS facebook page that you are not a member of. I had presented a play involving a batter/runner obstructed while rounding 1st on an overthrow and runs face first into F3. She starts to advance to 2nd by a couple of steps, thinks better of it because F9 had backed up the throw and returns to 1st. The ball is thrown to the pitcher who is not in the circle when the coach tells the runner the umpire called obstruction and she gets 2nd base. The runner starts to trot to 2nd when the pitcher runs over and tags her. This play is what prompted Manny to post a similar question here regarding exactly when the protection is cancelled.

Probably 95% of the comments are the obstruction protection ended as soon as the runner returned to 1st and the out stands.

There is another fairly large group that says exception 1 under the NFHS rules does not apply because there is no other runner, therefore there can be no subsequent play and the rule does not apply, the out stands.

Any rule which involves a play on a subsequent runner voids this argument 100% of the time. Simply cannot happen

Many also point to 8-4-3-b which says the runner is out if the proceed past the base they are protected to. That portion of the rule is very poorly worded in NFHS, in USA it adds the comment along the lines of "or proceeds beyond the 2 bases where obstructed."

Several try to use case play 8-4-3-situation G which really has nothing to do with the play other than there was a batter/runner obstructed while rounding 1st base.

Probably the best response was, and fortunately there was only the one, the ball being thrown back to the pitcher constituted a play since there were no other runners on base and that cancelled the obstruction.

Unless the pitcher is in the immediate vicinity of the runner when receiving the ball, it does not meet the definition of a play. Once the pitcher begins to chase the runner, that would be a play, but still does not negate the OBS ruling.

Many claim to have contacted their rules interpreters or UIC's and the responses are split, the majority being the out stands as the obstruction was cancelled when the runner returned to 1st.

I have contacted our former state assistant UIC, our current state UIC and another official in our state USA staff, all of whom agree the obstruction protection is still in place.

I presented the same play to our state NFHS rule interpreter and he came back with all of the same reasons I have posted above for the protection was cancelled and the out stands and referenced case play 8-4-3 situation G, which again has absolutely nothing to do with when the obstruction protection is cancelled.

There are well over 200 responses in the thread and as I stated, the vast majority of them are the obstruction is over and the out stands. No one is budging with all insisting they are correct. This is one of those situations where no one is going to accept the answer until national weighs in.

So, it seems the issue here is when and why is the OBS is dropped. As noted, any citation involving a subsequent runner is invalid.

That brings us to the umpire's judgment of where the OBS occurred. IMO when it occurs at a base AND it affected the path or actions of the runner beyond the base, the "between base" protection extends to the base beyond that where the OBS was initiated.

As an example, if a runner is approaching 2B and is OBS and forced to go wide to the outside, not only has s/he been deprived of access to a given path to 2B, but due to the OBS, now has a 65-70 ft distance to 3B. IMO, that forced change in path between 2B & 3B is just as much part of the OBS as that which impeded the runner's approach/access to 2B. Thus, I would protect that runner between 2B & 3B. Same would apply with a play at 1B or 3B.