Here is a fun play from Friday night:
The runner from second is dead meat. As he gets into a rundown, he remembers the Type A obstruction rule (7.06 (a))
7.06 When obstruction occurs, the umpire shall call or signal “Obstruction.”
(a) If a play is being made on the obstructed runner, or if the batter-runner is obstructed before he touches first base, the ball is dead and all runners shall advance, without liability to be put out, to the bases they would have reached, in the umpire’s judgment, if there had been no obstruction. The obstructed runner shall be awarded at least one base beyond the base he had last legally touched before the obstruction. Any preceding runners, forced to advance by the award of bases as the penalty for obstruction, shall advance without liability to be put out.
He creates contact with a fielder without the ball while a play is being made on him. Best case scenario is the umpire rules obstruction and he is given third base.
The umpire did not fall for it.
The book defines obstruction like this:
OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.
The fielder did not impede the progress of the runner. The runner chose to run into the fielder. Nice try by the runner, but again the umpire had none of it and properly called the runner out.
Quick note from the clip…if nothing else is learned from your time on this blog, please remember this: offensive players interfere and defensive player obstruct. The runner was trying to draw obstruction and not interference
The announcer, a third generation one at that, got it wrong.
Type A obstruction is on page 63 of RuleGraphics. RuleGraphics is a visual way to learn the rules of baseball. Don’t be the guy that confuses obstruction and interference.
BetterRuleBook.com 