Obstruction

[mcrowder]

I'm not trying to dogpile you here, Andy. (In fact, the intent of this thread is to dogpile debeau! Right, Debeau? )

But you say you understand the intent of the rule, and then immediately reiterate a punitive attitude toward defense. You say you are looking for an "opportunity" to award additional bases. You shouldn't be. If you're looking for any opportunity, it should be to rectify what might have been wronged by the OBS, not to punish defense in order to prevent recidivism. The whole tone of your comments rub me really wrong.

The perception that defense loses nothing due to the OBS is not true --- it may be true that on 90% of OBS cases there is no eventual effect... but defense loses the right to get a runner out that might have otherwise gotten out on her own. The most common example - Batter hits a "single-and-a-half" to right, and F3 obstructs after first base. You decide single. Defense has lost any opportunity to nail the runner at 2nd if she got aggressive, or at 1st throwing behind her.