Packerbacker

Say F8 dives for a ball, gloves it, rolls over and during that process loses control of the ball. But instead of the ball falling to the ground, it pops up in the air and F8 regloves it and maintains control up through voluntary releases when he tosses it into the infield.

We actually had a youth umpire show up (thankfully early) for his first All-Star assignment wearing spiked shoes. Made noise while walking on the sidewalk to the field area. Got the attention of the District Administrator, who was not happy and made the umpire go home and change his shoes.

Likewise for LL managers and coaches

'Guest fred' is correct in his interpretation of LL baseball rules. On this particular subject, the LL rules have not changed in the last 10+ years. I don't do softball, but my limited understanding agrees with what 'beerguy55' wrote.

The Little League I support has a "Best Umpire Award" determined by vote of the coaches. I never win.

In the context of possible runner interference, the Little League Rules Instruction Manual explicitly recognizes "visual and verbal". One could in Ll in theory extend that concept.

Was discussing this play/call with a Pirate's fan earlier today. Afterwards he wrote: Since I emailed this I was tweeting with a couple reporters, including a photographer who was in the camera well beside the dugout; they confirmed the ball had gone into the camera well and rebounded from DBT.

Proceed in time order. "Any player who has played the position of catcher in four (4) or more innings in a game is not eligible to pitch on that calendar day." After 3 innings of catching, the catcher is eligible to pitch. "A pitcher who delivers 41 or more pitches in a game cannot play the position of catcher for the remainder of that day." The starting catcher who became the pitcher leaves after 40 pitches. He is still eligible to play catcher. I'm not saying this is 'logical', but that is the interpretation as far as I know.

But you can catch 3 innings, then pitch 40 pitches, and then go back and catch any number of innings

From the LL RIM: "If the offensive manager requests time out to talk to the batter or runner, the defensive manager may confer with the pitcher and/or catcher without being charged with a visit." But presumably the DM would need to stop his discussion when the OM was done with his -- be told to cease or get assessed a visit.

I don't see that "other runners return to the last base legally touched unless they were affected by the OBS" equates to "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." Is there an interpretation that says that the latter language (from OBR and from Little League, which is all that I do) should be implemented in accordance with the former language? Note, for example, that the batter/runner in this play was well on his way to 2B, and one could imagine a play where say the batter/runner was barely short of the base at the time of the obstruction.

For LL considerations, did F4 catch the throw? If so, did F4 have possession of the ball before R1 was tripped/hindered?

Sometimes dangerous to do so, but taking 3.08(a) literally the text would seem to apply explicitly to substitutes, i.e., players not currently in the lineup: "(a) If no announcement of a substitution is made, the substitute shall be considered to have entered the game when - (1) if a pitcher, the substitute takes a position on the pitcher’s plate and throws one warm-up pitch to the catcher;" [my emphasis added]