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.