Bunt or dribbler down the first base line who has the right of way?

Does the runner need to run around the fielder if they are attempting to make a play on the ball? What if the fielder is taking up the whole 3 ft. line space? What if there is contact and the fielder doesn't make the play because of this?

Thanks

The fielder has the right of way on a batted ball. If the runner makes contact with the fielder which results in the fielder being unable to make a play that they would have made without contact (in the judgement of the umpire), the runner is out for interference.

1 fielder on defense has the right to field the ball without interference from offense, umpire gets to decided who.

Runner does not need to worry about the running lane, just avoid contact. Left or right.

Got it. THank you. I saw a play in a tournament last weekend where the fielder fielded the ball on the base line and got the out. The runner ran around the fielder and continued to 1st but the throw clearly beat her. There was a conference between one team and the umps. They changed the original out call to safe. I wasn't close enough to hear the reasoning.

Sitting behind keyboard seems like wrong call.

shaunw09 said:

Got it. THank you. I saw a play in a tournament last weekend where the fielder fielded the ball on the base line and got the out. The runner ran around the fielder and continued to 1st but the throw clearly beat her. There was a conference between one team and the umps. They changed the original out call to safe. I wasn't close enough to hear the reasoning.

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Usually on a bunt or dribbler down the first base line results in the Pitcher, First Baseman, and Catcher converging into the same area. As quincy mentioned, only one fielder will have the protection to field the ball without interference from the offense. The umpires may have decided that the Pitcher had the best chance to make the play and had the protection from interference. The Pitcher could choose to not field the ball (thinking it was going foul, deferring to another player who called for the ball, wanting to avoid a collision with the batter/runner). In this scenario, the First Baseman on the base path does not have the right of way and could have called for obstruction. This is assuming the First Baseman didn't already have the ball when the batter/runner ran around her.

quincy said:

Sitting behind keyboard seems like wrong call.

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Yeah. The throw was right on and 1st baseman didn't really stretch for the ball much so I don't think she pulled her foot. The runner definitely went outside the 3 ft. line into foul territory. I couldn't figure out a scenario where they would change the call to safe.

shaunw09 said:

Yeah. The throw was right on and 1st baseman didn't really stretch for the ball much so I don't think she pulled her foot. The runner definitely went outside the 3 ft. line into foul territory. I couldn't figure out a scenario where they would change the call to safe.

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After some research on the subject, I was shocked to find out that umpires are actually humans.

Eric F said:

After some research on the subject, I was shocked to find out that umpires are actually humans.

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I had an idea this week. Robot umpires. Pre-programmed strike zones, can see everything at once, and will be programmed to know all the rules. Someone invent that please. I'm not techie enough. You'll make a fortune.

Yelling at a Robot does't seem like too much fun. Rather yell at a person.