Retired runner interference?

[ilyazhito]

I think Rich was trying to draw a parallel with baseball, where retired runners are not out just for continuing to run. He has a point, because a retired runner can't just disappear from the basepath once declared out.

[Robert Goodman]

That's the thing that makes these fielding-and-baserunning games both charming and vexing: You have opposing teams racing to do different things in the same space, yet they're not allowed to assume control of that space.

You have sports like swimming races, where the competitors are racing to do the same thing, but in lanes of their own so they can't interfere with each other. You have court-and-net games like volleyball and tennis, where the sides are confined to their own space and alternate the same actions. And there are games where you have to use the same space, but take turns, such as bowling and darts; in some of those games your shots are allowed to affect your opponent's directly (i.e. bocce), and in others not.

And then you have object-and-goals games, where you're allowed to tackle the opponent or at least steal the ball or puck from them and get in the way of their passes. You have to share the same space at the same time, but that's OK because you're vying for control of what goes on in it. And that's to say nothing of combat sports like boxing, wrestling, and paintball, where you use your opponent's body as an object.

But these fielding-and-baserunning games have opposing action, doing different things, forced to use the same space at the same time. Not only are you not allowed to tackle the runner or the fielder, and not allowed to intercept their passes, but you can't even get in the way accidentally of what the opponent's trying to do, by doing what the game makes you do. In some pinball machines, having the ball hit certain targets causes the runners to move in their own separate compartment from the ball, while in others the runners are represented by lights and couldn't possibly interfere with the ball.

The only other class of games I can think of where opponents are forced to use the same space and not interfere with each other are court-and-wall games like court handball, paddleball, and squash.