Obstruction question

[HugoTafurst]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

Why does a player need, and why would you grant "time" for a player to dust herself off? Can't she do that while standing safely on the base?

Frankly, I see that as an unnecessary carry-over from baseball, which coddles the players by killing the ball at every unnecessary opportunity. OK, you just finished sliding into a base; so? There is no reason to grant time. Now, if the batter-runner was wearing protective equipment that she needs to remove and hand to a coach, fine; but not to dust off.

JMO, and it isn't granted in my games; at any level.

...or why should she be granted time to be able to stand up (without losing contact with the base after sliding) for that matter?

Sounds like you and I agree on that philosophy. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't.

Most often I see this when the runner is on the ground with one hand on the bag and the other in the air requesting TIME as the fielder is holding the tag on her. I will usually just say, "Let's play ball" and they both get the message - fielder throws ball to pitcher, runner figures out how to stand up.

And you know what else... if the ball goes back to the cirle and the runner does momentarily lose contact with the base while she is getting up, I didn't see it.
(I know what other rules don't I enforce?)