Obstruction question

[BretMan]

Re: the baseball version...

While awarding home could be right for either FED or OBR baseball (I'm not familiar enough with NCAA off the top of my head to say for sure without looking it up), the reasoning might be different.

I would agree on awarding home here for either baseball rule set, simply because the original post noted that "the runner would have scored easily".

The reason I brought up the difference (in response to Steve's post) was to note that a one-base foward penalty is unique to FED. There is no mandatory on-base forward award in OBR.

On this particular play, the umpire judged that home would be reached and that is an appropriate award under either rule set. On other plays, the one-base advance is not guaranteed under OBR rules- it's always "the one the runner would have reached", which could be one he is retreating to.

Okay...no more baseball talk!

[MNBlue]

Originally Posted by BretMan

Re: the baseball version...
The reason I brought up the difference (in response to Steve's post) was to note that a one-base foward penalty is unique to FED.

Actually, NFHS softball used to have that provision for obstruction as well. It has been a few years since they dropped it. I remember 'partners' not calling obstruction on a pick at first with R1 diving back in because they didn't want to advance R1, when they obviously were not attempting to advance.

[greymule]

OBR recognizes type A and type B OBS, which Fed does not. OBR does have an automatic one-base award, but only for type A.

I do not do NCAA baseball, but from reading Carl Childress's Baseball Rules Differences, I know that the three codes differ significantly. For example, neither OBR nor NCAA recognizes a fake take or verbal OBS. But Fed and NCAA are similar in that "OBS is always a delayed dead ball," while in OBR, it is immediately dead on type A. In fact, in Fed and NCAA baseball, the ball isn't necessarily dead even when the obstructed runner is put out (as it is in ASA softball).