Correct me if I'm wrong....

[maven]

57 minutes ago, Richvee said:

Would you agree we need to see the proximity of the two fielders to judge INT on R2, or, as @Kevin_K and @Tborze suggest, OBS on F6? 

Granted, OBS is not an answer in the OP, but I can envision a case for OBS where F5 is cutting the ball off in front of F6, misses it while F6 is behind him, and R2 runs into F6. OBS with F5 having been the protected fielder. Similar to a ground ball up the 1B line where F1 and F3 both are fielding the ball and BR contacts one. 

I picture this OP where there's ample room between F5 missing the ball and F6 fielding it, in which case I would have INT. 

Rich, if I understand your question, it seems to be more of a mechanics question than a rules question. The rules question I take to have been (more or less) settled.

Again, if I understand, you seem to ask how we judge this play. Our positioning is not going to be very flexible: this is a batted ball, and this action will happen in a heartbeat. Moreover, it's complicated by F5 booting his end of play, so whatever quick expectations we might make when the ball is hit to his left will have to be revised on the fly.

But all the speed of the play does not require us to speed up. We need to see what happens and judge hindrance, bearing in mind that on a batted ball, runner/fielder contact is virtually always something, not nothing (2 esteemed members of my association notwithstanding).

It could be a call that requires 2 umpires to piece together what they see: PU has an angle on the runner/fielder interaction, and BU has an angle on what happens with the ball. If so, it's easier to get off a call made than to first make a call after conferring.

[Tborze]

The way the question is written both INT (c) or OBS (a) can be correct.  It also seems to make it a point that, "When the play ends, R2 is on third and B1 is on first". 

"hits a grounder in the hole at short". So F6 would be the protected fielder. INT (dead ball) 

"F5 comes over to field the ball, but it passes through his legs". F5 was protected fielder. OBS on F6. (Live ball) "when play ends...etc"

If F5 was set up to field the ball but it goes right through his legs, and R2 runs behind to avoid but runs into F6 backing up F5, I have OBS.  If all runners advance there is no reference to the OBS. Play stands.

Thoughts? 

 

 

 

 

[Richvee]

6 minutes ago, Tborze said:

If F5 was set up to field the ball but it goes right through his legs, and R2 runs behind to avoid but runs into F6 backing up F5, I have OBS.  If all runners advance there is no reference to the OBS. Play stands.

This is interference....It's also a little HTBT. Once the ball is past F5, and F6 is trying to field it, INT. If the contact between R2 and F6 is prior to F5 missing the ball, it's OBS. That's my take. 

[maven]

3 minutes ago, Tborze said:

"hits a grounder in the hole at short". So F6 would be the protected fielder. INT (dead ball) 

If that's all there is to the play, agreed.

3 minutes ago, Tborze said:

"F5 comes over to field the ball, but it passes through his legs". F5 was protected fielder. OBS on F6. (Live ball) "when play ends...etc"

If we stipulate that only F5 is protected, then I agree.

6 minutes ago, Tborze said:

If F5 was set up to field the ball but it goes right through his legs, and R2 runs behind to avoid but runs into F6 backing up F5, I have OBS.  If all runners advance there is no reference to the OBS. Play stands.

Not so fast. Once the ball gets past F5, as folks have been saying, protection transfers to F6. Don't confuse the provision in the rules about the batted ball going "through or by" a fielder, which excuses the runner behind him from interference with the ball, with the provision concerning interference with a fielder. The runner is not excused from that, and as described this play starts to sound like INT.

[Kevin_K]

So...... @Richvee your post heading offers more than you may have originally thought.

The question in Referee magazine could be correct as published and it is not so cut and dried in any one direction.

As many have said in the past, sometimes you just have to umpire.

[Jimurray]

7 hours ago, maven said:

If that's all there is to the play, agreed.

If we stipulate that only F5 is protected, then I agree.

Not so fast. Once the ball gets past F5, as folks have been saying, protection transfers to F6. Don't confuse the provision in the rules about the batted ball going "through or by" a fielder, which excuses the runner behind him from interference with the ball, with the provision concerning interference with a fielder. The runner is not excused from that, and as described this play starts to sound like INT.

In the OP  through or by would not even excuse the runner from interference with the ball unless there was a touch of the ball by F5 when it  went through his legs. Another fielder had a chance to make a play on the ball. 

[Richvee]

3 hours ago, Kevin_K said:

So...... @Richvee your post heading offers more than you may have originally thought.

The question in Referee magazine could be correct as published and it is not so cut and dried in any one direction.

As many have said in the past, sometimes you just have to umpire.

Well, at least it stirred up some conversation while we wait for spring to arrive and get on the field.