Obstruction

[UmpireErnie]

Originally Posted by EsqUmp

The obstruction rule is a rule of equity. It exists to right a wrong and place the players into a position that they should have been in, in the umpires' judgment, should the obstruction not occurred.

If an umpire makes an immediate determination upon obstruction that he is going to protect the runner to 2nd base, but later sees that the runner gets thrown out by a hair at 3rd base, he must award the runner 3rd base.

So your saying the award is determined based on how far the obstructed runner goes after being obstructed? So if this same runner is obstructed rounding 1B and decides to stop at 2B then that's all she gets?

And by same reasoning a BR rounding 1B taking extra step to get around F3 now should be awarded any base on diamond where she is tagged out on a close play?

Can you not see how wrong that is?

[UmpireErnie]

Some more discussion before we declare the horse dead and stop beating it.

As many have pointed out the time to decide where to protect an obstructed runner or batter/runner is at the time of the obstruction.. But I think some people are taking that to mean a snap decision the instant you give the DDB signal. IMO it means making the decision based on the events at that time and nothing else. The only thing you are communicating immediately is that you saw the obstruction.

So batter gets base hit to outfield. Bumps into F3 rounding 1B because F3 has become a spectator. Umpire gives DDB and states "Obstruction". Now it's time to decide how far tot protect.. But the umpire can certainly take enough time to see where that batted ball ends up before deciding if it was a double or a triple.

You can take this time because your still using the action taking place at the time of the obstruction to make your determination of where to protect i.e. The BR was obstructed while running on a batted ball, and that batted ball is still rolling around for some time after the obstruction. By the time defense corrals this ball and throws it in you should have all the info needed to make a judgement call: that hit was a single/double/triple. After that no more changing if obstructed runner tries to stretch beyond the protection and is thrown out, even on a close play it's still an out. By the time a play is made on an obstructed runner the decision on where to protect should already be made. And if obstructed runner stops at a previous base then at end of play umpire should award her the base protected to.

But think about this: the rarest hit is a true inside-the-park home run followed by a true triple. To protect this batter-runner to 3B she had to be able to get there without benefit of a fielders choice elsewhere or a bad throw etc etc.

[chapmaja]

One thing I have found about obstruction discussions is a lack of consistency on what level of obstruction occurs.

There is a big different between a runner who has to slightly alter her path around a base (ie, F3 standing on the corner of the base as B1 tries to round the base on a hit to left field) compared with a B1 running into F3 on that same situation and B1 ends up on the ground.

We as umpires need to account for the "level of obstruction" as part of the decision making process. We must also be able to judge the speed of the runner, the level of play from the fielders, and where a ball is hit.

For example, A batter who hits a ball to the LF fence but runs like an injured elephant and gets obstructed at first, may only get awarded first or second. The same hit and same obstruction on a girl who could be a state champion sprint runner would likely result in protection to 2nd or third.

All of these factors need to be accounted for on a play. Not all of these factors can be accounted for the moment the obstruction occurs. We be able to use all of our senses to make the best possible decision as to where to protect an obstructed runner.

All decisions humans make need to take all the available information into play. Sometimes the decisions are easy, other times they are not easy.

[UmpireErnie]

Not sure I agree. Again we are using the example of batter/runner rounding 1B on a batted ball and being obstructed by F3. The award is where batter/runner would be sans obstruction. If the hit was a double, then at the award should be 2B whether she was knocked down or just took an extra step to avoid F3.

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by UmpireErnie

Not sure I agree. Again we are using the example of batter/runner rounding 1B on a batted ball and being obstructed by F3. The award is where batter/runner would be sans obstruction. If the hit was a double, then at the award should be 2B whether she was knocked down or just took an extra step to avoid F3.

Again, we need to use all the information available, which was my point. What may be a double for one player won't we a double for a different player.

I could hit a ball to the fence and likely would get thrown out at 2nd. A few of the HS girls I umpire could hit the same ball in the same place and it would be an easy double and possibly a triple.

There are so many different factors. This isn't like baseball's WAR statistic that compares fact and fiction. We need to make a call based on everything we know, not the pretend world. If we know runner X is slow, she isn't going to run the bases the same speed as a sprinter would. The speed of the runner is something we can easily see on the play.

It's not fair to say X hit will always be a double because in some cases it will be a single, and in other cases the same ball hitting the same place will be a double or triple, not even considering what the defense does with the ball.

It's easy to say we should be able to award protection to X base simply based on where the ball is hit, but in reality we need to take factors A,B,C, X, Y, and Z all into consideration. Often times we don't even know each factor until after the obstruction occurs because we not be looking at that factor at the moment the obstruction occurs.