OBS at home - how do you know?

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by CecilOne

As with any rule change, there are always some officials who will go to the extreme, as in Celtic's reference to NCAA and Jeff Hanson. But that, usually, and in this case means paying more attention to the change than the full rule. Which means calling OBS whenever a base line/path is blocked without possession of the ball, ignoring that the rule requires the runner to be impeded.

Therefore, "call OBS only if it is a visible alteration in the runner's path " AND the fielder causes the alteration (i.e., impedes) without possessing the ball.

In my mind, that does not have a distance restriction.

To me there is one key part of this ruling. The path is blocked and the runner is impeded. The base path is the path the runner chooses to take to get to the base. She can take any path she so desires (within certain limitations) until the defense is in possession of the ball attempting to make a tag on the runner, at which time her base path shall be a direct line to the base.

This really is a HTBT situation, and it's like porn, you know it when you see it.