obstruction at 1st

[mac266]

OBR, with league modifications.  12U.  This is the same game I posted about the catcher failing to make the grab in foul territory.

No outs and no one on.

Batter hit the ball into play, blooper to shallow center field.  The center fielder grabbed the ball on a hop and threw hard to first to attempt to get the out.  However, he overthrew it.  The runner touched the bag, and as he turned to go toward 2nd, was trucked by the 1st baseman who was chasing down the overthrown ball.  In my judgement, there was nothing malicious about this -- they were 12.  He simply lost situational awareness of where the runner was as he was focused on the ball.  The runner, despite having initially started toward second, turned and came back to first after he got back up (he had been hit pretty hard).  

I've been studying umpirebible.com and their "rule myths" link, so I knew this one:  The notion that a runner must make an attempt at the next base to be awarded it on an obstruction call is a MYTH.  In my judgement, he would made it safely to second had he not been obstructed.  So I ruled it an obstruction and gave him 2nd base.  

I was a little surprised that no one from the defense argued with me.  It seems like coaches argue this one all the time.

[noumpere]

Sounds like the right call -- maybe the defense knew the rule, maybe they "got it right for the wrong reason", etc.

[The Man in Blue]

No argument because it was a good call.  

[SeeingEyeDog]

Timing, elocution and knowledge...

75% of the time, it works 100% of the time. And don't let that "surprise no one is arguing" ever show.

After making your call, get the runner(s) moved as necessary and put the ball back in play...

~Dog

[stkjock]

On 7/25/2020 at 4:00 PM, mac266 said:

 

Batter hit the ball into play, blooper to shallow center field.  The center fielder grabbed the ball on a hop and threw hard to first to attempt to get the out.  However, he overthrew it.  The runner touched the bag, and as he turned to go toward 2nd, was trucked by the 1st baseman who was chasing down the overthrown ball.  In my judgement, there was nothing malicious about this -- they were 12.  He simply lost situational awareness of where the runner was as he was focused on the ball.  The runner, despite having initially started toward second, turned and came back to first after he got back up (he had been hit pretty hard).  

 

I think the highlighted part of the story is the key, the runner was making an attempt to get 2nd, once trucked the kid figures that there's no way he'll make it there, so he moved back to first, 12U ball it's unlikely he'd know the rules well enough to realize he likely has a "free pass" at second if he's thrown out by anything but a huge margin, so in his pre-adolescent brain, "I'm going to make sure I don't make an out"