Catcher's Obstruction on backswing

[Bluefoot]

Men's ASA SP Rec league. Last night I called Catcher's Obstruction on when the catcher stuck his glove forward and hit the batters bat on the backswing, BEFORE the forward swing, as the pitcher was pitching. Some members of the defense went nuts and could not understand how I could make that call, since it was on the backswing. Today, I can't find anything in the rule book that states a difference between forward and back swing. I just told the team that the catcher cannot interfere with any part of the batter's swing that prevents the batter from trying to hit the ball. It's the catcher's fault for being too close or reaching too far forward. And the batter certainly did not intentionally try to hit the catcher's glove. Was this ruling correct? Thanks.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally posted by Bluefoot
Men's ASA SP Rec league. Last night I called Catcher's Obstruction on when the catcher stuck his glove forward and hit the batters bat on the backswing, BEFORE the forward swing, as the pitcher was pitching. Some members of the defense went nuts and could not understand how I could make that call, since it was on the backswing. Today, I can't find anything in the rule book that states a difference between forward and back swing. I just told the team that the catcher cannot interfere with any part of the batter's swing that prevents the batter from trying to hit the ball. It's the catcher's fault for being too close or reaching too far forward. And the batter certainly did not intentionally try to hit the catcher's glove. Was this ruling correct? Thanks.

There is nothing wrong with your call if the pitch is on the way. If it happens prior to that and you can get the call out before the release, you should just kill the pitch, allow batter and catcher to reset and then resume the game. No obstruction should be called.

[Shmuelg]

Very interesting. A similar call happened to me about a month ago. The batter was taking his "warm-up" swings, and on the last one, the bat touched the catcher's glove. The pitch came in, he swung and missed. The bat did NOT hit the glove during this swing. I looked at the situation for a few milliseconds, then called "strike".

The reason I did this was that I didn't think the glove hit the bat while the batter was in the process of swinging at the ball. The batter was livid, but because most of the teams and players in our leage (Israel Softball Association) are pretty calm, and there are at least two umps on each team, no too many fireworks were lit up, if you know what I mean.