OBS follow-up

[AtlUmpSteve]

In neither of your cases would I rule anything but obstruction. In the first case, while six feet may seem extreme, the runner wasn't looking at the fielder, so no way was she trying to run into the fielder; fielder must be aware, and is not protected because that is where she chose to be in her set position. Obstruction.

In the second instance, even while the runner did see the fielder, she touched the base and almost simultaneously contacted the fielder, so the fielder was simply too close to the base path; dumb move fielder. Obstruction (unless the contact was sufficient to consider a crash).