I'm on my way over right now. Venison is the best meat. Ever. Period.

Certainly.

In every case, the award for obstruction is the base they would have earned if not obstructed. The exception is when forced to advance (not the case here). If she would not be safe at second, return her to first.

The issue you will have selling that is if the play is bang-bang; you almost have to assume she was hindered enough to award the next base. If dead out, certainly you can return her.

A friend of mine who went bow hunting last weekend was telling me that he likes to take venison steaks, cut them thin, and then bread them and fry them like a chicken fried steak. He swears that you will never eat anything finer in your life. I am going to try this next time, I think.

Yes, that is correct. It also seems like taking the dirty end of the stick if the runner was as close as in the OP. A runner would have to be a long, long way from the base for me to send her back.

Now see, that is exactly how I understand the rule is written, however, I do not think I would have realized that without you noting it here. For some reason I forgot that was an option when we started talking about the play happening in the vacinity of second. Thank you for the reminder.

I did not think about returning R1 to 1B when I ruled OBS. Then after the game I realized that that would have been an option. However I think that there was a chance that R1 could have made 2B w/o the OBS, maybe only a 10% chance, but nonetheless, a chance. Given the play being in the vicinity of 2B and the "chance" I'm happy with the 2B award.

What bothers me most is that my partner, who thinks that I shouldn't have called OBS, is my Commissioner and HS game assignor.

It's 7 AM, and I'm already hungry. Thanks! :p

GOD I love venison!

The original free-range, organic meat.