- Oct 24, 2010
- 308
- 28
It may be how I am envisioning the scenario ... and mainly how I am interpreting “between two bases” if the runner has gone back to third and is there (stops, looks around, etc.). I do not consider her to still be between the two bases. If she stays put, after the play is dead I may still award her home dependent on whether the obstruction caused her to retreat.
If she has gone back and been on third safely, stops, looks around, and then decides to make a second attempt at home, to me that is a separate attempt to advance and a different play. If she gets tagged out, I may still give her home on the initial obstruction ... but if I didn’t think she was going to reach home the first time, I’m not going to protect her on the second attempt. To me, she reached third safely and attempted to advance beyond the protection.
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You will lose a protest over this interpretation.
By rule you have no choice but to continue to protect her, you cant simply chose to cancel the obstruction based on your own personal misinterpretation of the rule. Nowhere in the rule does it say anything about secondary attempts. The rule says the runner cannot be put out by the defense between the 2 bases where the obstruction occurred and the only way the obstruction is cancelled is that 2 separate criteria have to be met. She has to reach the base she would have absent obstruction AND there must be a subsequent play on a different runner. Until both of those requirements are met the obstruction is still in effect.
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This. There MUST BE a subsequent play on a different runner. USA 8.5.B1 ex A, NFHS 8-4-3b Pen a) ex 1.
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