Another Obstruction play...

[wadeintothem]

Originally Posted by Andy

A question: I may be reading too much into your response, but are you saying that OBS should only be called when the umpire will award the next base?

No, there are lots of situations..

As Mike surmised earlier, part of the OBS happened prior to the BR reaching first, and part happened between first and second. In my judgement, I had the runner protected between first and second. I do not believe the BR would have reached second base absent the OBS, but she cannot be put out between first and second. The fact that she stopped and then only attempted to go to second after the third base coach saw my DDB signal and yelled at the runner to go confirmed my initial judgement.

Im not arguing here.. just kind of exploring a the mushy gray matter between my ears..

The runner was protected between the two bases...
but at the same time.
The runner had already safely reached the base you would award her had there been no obs (1B)..

So essentially, you should have either called her out IMO or given her 2B to be consistent on the call..

My brain is tired, long day at work and a double header of female SP (no I didnt slit my wrists)..

It seems to me once the runner reaches the protected base, they are no longer protected.

By your own ruling after the fact, you didnt protect her to 2nd.. you seem to have a .. "well shes protected to 1b.. then between 1b-2b and if shes out she goes to 1b"

Personnally, i dont see justication for that "grant in part deny in part" type ruling within ASA rules.


In the heat of a game a ruling where everyone is happy is a good one so hey its all good... but here I like to thrash the wheat a little and learn from it.

I disagree with you here, Wade. I'm certainly not a coach or have ever coached, but most runners that I have seen want to turn at any base on the inside corner to get a good push to change direction and take the shortest possible path to the next base. A fielder standing on the inside corner of the base without the ball is taking that path away from the runner.

If the play was in anyway close at 2b, argument could be made the runner just might have made it..but thats the htbt part.

IMO, your argument has less to do with an DDB signal and OBS than it does with the power of a umpire to rectify a situation they caused. You recognize your DDB signal caused the coach to send his runner and you fixed it. And thats fine you did that, but thats mixing the two rule sets into one.

Thats a different matter than making the argument DDB/OBS ruling was exactly correct, those are two different rule sets .. either that runner was protected to 2b or to 1b.. cant be both, and if 1b, that runner passed her protected base.