sliding at home is it obstruction

[Guest warren]

okay so we are playing softball there a runner at first guy hits the ball is very fast runner. he hits a shot there a play at the plate ? first guy slides in safe the seconed guy is 5 feet behind him. the cather cant put the tag on the seconed runner because the first guy slid and could not get out of the way. now bear in mind the first person didnt have any time to move it was all with in seconds of each other ?

the question is is the seconed person out or is he safe ?

[maven]

I'll provide the baseball answer and assume softball is the same. I'm also going to assume I understand the garbled question.

Runners generally do not have to "disappear" after being retired. The rules permit them to return to the dugout and not be liable merely for doing that (or continuing to run the bases).

If the trailing runner were really that close (5–10 feet), he'd cover that in less than a second. I wouldn't expect the scored runner to have vacated the plate area that quickly. Thus, to call OBS here would impose an unreasonable burden on the offense. That's nothing, play on.

It could of course have gone badly for the offense: the scored runner might have moved into the trailing runner's path, blocking him off the plate and making the tag easy. 

Unusual ≠ illegal. Sometimes baseball (and, I'll wager, even softball) happens.

[ArchAngel72]

I would agree with Maven so long as the 1st runner sliding in did nothing to intentionally get in the way of the catcher.  If they rolled or moved in any manner blocking the catcher that was evident then, yeah I would prolly bang the runner coming in out. But based on OP no. 

My theoretical would probably also need more time than the OP states to actually happen. Not enough time there to build that scenario the more I think about it.

 

[maven]

I think that a couple standard assumptions around here are:

1. If players violate intentionally (OBS, INT, such as tripping, grabbing, tackling) the OP is going to mention that, and
2. If the OP doesn't mention it, nothing like that happened.

Of course intentional violations have to be addressed accordingly. Those usually aren't vexing questions.

[Umpire in Chief]

Oh no we can't have another Warren here...

[Guest warren]

thank you everyone for your answers. the  first person to slide home didn't do obstruction on purpose. just a huge argument after the play as it was a pickup game. I was on side that it was obstruction. Am happy the call went against me and the player was called safe. 

[jms1425]

Pet peeve alert.... it wouldn't be "obstruction" in ANY scenario. It would be interference if a runner did something to hinder the defense.