Is Obstruction Mental?

[bkbjones]

Here are my first blushes, not that they mean a GD thing but...

How do we KNOW that all their running options have been taken away? How do we know how many options they have anyway? I'm a student and a study-er or players in the game...I want to know if the RF has a good arm, etc. But how do I know how many options are at hand. And am I SURE I have covered them all?

What about intent? The intent of the defender, AND the intent of the runner. The OP, at first blush again, suggests to me that we are called upon to judge intent. Well, I'm not going to judge intent. That is not the purpose of the rule OR the defintion. And (yes, I know, don't start sentences with conjunctions) at what point in time when those options are taken away do we call obstruction. If R2 is halfway to third, will likely score, but the catcher is set up three feet up the line from the plate, then these options are exhausted. Can we call obstruction then? do we un-call obstruction of the catcher moves? I can see our left arms going up and down like some semaphore. (Semaphore...does that mean I am old?)

Let me say that I am NOT against a healthy discussion of this or almost any other rule, defintion, mechanic or whatever else. However, we have hashed and wailed and everything else about this definition and rule. I am going to call obstruction when I see it...and I am going to use the definition that has been taught to me, and which I have taught to others:

Obstruction is the act of a defender who, without possession of the ball, causes the base runner to deviate from their basepath.

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by tcannizzo

Dead Ball. Runner out for crashing. Return other runners to bases last touched at time of crash.

Not necessarily. Had a situation the other night in a playoff game between two 5A schools, where both the catcher and the pitcher were blocking the runner's access to the plate. Even when the runner tried to move to the inside, the catcher moved with her, caught the ball, and got plowed into all at about the same time. The only ruling I could have possibly had was OBS, because both defensive players were actively hindering the runner's access to the plate, causing her to deviate her path. The subsequent crash was a result, not of interference, but of their obstruction.

[CecilOne]

If the fielder or catcher being positioned in the base path is the reason the runner can't get to the base; isn't that OBS? If the defender is not blocking and would have had to move into the block, it is not certain that the defender would accomplish the block with the ball. That means being in the base path originally creates an advantage for the defender, hence a disadvantage/impedance for the runner.