Little League Obstruction

[MTUmp109]

Tonight I had R2 going to third on a hit ball. R2 slides into 3rd.. As the 3rd base man fakes a tag. 3rd base did not have the ball. But in my opinion R2 was going to slide anyways because his coach was yelling down down down.. BUT Little League Definition of Obstruction is :

“OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball, impedes the progress of any runner. A fake tag is considered obstruction. (NOTE: Obstruction shall be called on a defensive player who blocks off a base, base line or home plate from a base runner while not in possession of the ball.)”

SO should I have called it and gave him home plate?

[Jimurray]

5 minutes ago, MTUmp109 said:

Tonight I had R2 going to third on a hit ball. R2 slides into 3rd.. As the 3rd base man fakes a tag. 3rd base did not have the ball. But in my opinion R2 was going to slide anyways because his coach was yelling down down down.. BUT Little League Definition of Obstruction is :

“OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball, impedes the progress of any runner. A fake tag is considered obstruction. (NOTE: Obstruction shall be called on a defensive player who blocks off a base, base line or home plate from a base runner while not in possession of the ball.)”

SO should I have called it and gave him home plate?

If you judged it caused the runner to slide it was obstruction. Most of the time the award would be the base he was going to, ie: 3B. Sometimes we just tell the fielder don't do that. There are rare scenarios where you could award HP on such a fake tag but this doesn't sound like one.

[maven]

8 hours ago, MTUmp109 said:

Tonight I had R2 going to third on a hit ball. R2 slides into 3rd.. As the 3rd base man fakes a tag. 3rd base did not have the ball. But in my opinion R2 was going to slide anyways because his coach was yelling down down down.. BUT Little League Definition of Obstruction is :

“OBSTRUCTION is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball, impedes the progress of any runner. A fake tag is considered obstruction. (NOTE: Obstruction shall be called on a defensive player who blocks off a base, base line or home plate from a base runner while not in possession of the ball.)”

SO should I have called it and gave him home plate?

I can't tell you what LL wants.

FED wants fake tags called and penalized every time. In a FED game, the minimum award is to 3B, because the OBS occurred before R2 touched 3B. If I have any notion that R2 could have scored, I will award him home.

Question for LL folks: FED treats a fake tag as not only OBS but also UNS (type 1: team warning, eject the next offender from that team, 3-3-1b). Does LL have anything like that?

Note that in order to enforce the FED rules correctly, we must call these fake tags every time, even where the award doesn't amount to much, and warn the team (or, after the first offense, eject).

 

[Mudisfun]

We teach in our district to award the OBS and warn the player, just like FED. This is a safety issue, even more so than FED... watching a kid slide who really does not know how to... although funny looking can lead to injury.

[beerguy55]

It may seem obvious to some, but also be clear on what a fake tag is.   Having an empty hand/glove is not the only component to a fake tag.   If coach is yelling "down" there's either a play coming, or he thinks there is.  So I'm just curious how this went from a possible close play with the coach telling his player "down down down", to no play with a fake tag.  Did the throw never happen - double clutch/dropped by other fielder?  Did it get thrown away?  Or did F5 simply not catch it and make a quick tag thinking he had the ball?  

[MTUmp109]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer..    I have know idea why the coach was yelling down down down..  The throw never came..