OBS or No?

[834k3r]

Situation I had last night:  B/R attempted to stretch a double into a triple and slid head first into 3B. F5 had his legs spread waiting for the throw, but he was between the base and the sliding B/R. B/R slid in safe.

Had the tag beat the B/R, would you have called OBS on F5? I considered awarding B/R 3B had the tag been there earlier, but the opening between F5's legs makes me question OBS.

Thoughts, friends?

[wolfe_man]

If he was standing there before the ball got there, then that is OBS.  He cannot block the base without the ball, no different than F2 could at the plate.  Until he is either in possession of the ball or is in the act of receiving the ball, then he must stay clear of the B/R access to the base or risk OBS. 

You said he was stretching a double into a triple, how much of a stretch?  Was he going to be safe if no OBS by F5?  This is one of those things sometimes you kind of have to see to get right; however, it sure sounds like OBS to me - but I'm glad that B/R made it safely so that you didn't have to call it anyhow.

[maven]

The FED OBS rule, as you know, requires that fielders without the ball allow the runner "access" to the base. That means a way for the runner to reach hand or foot to the base from roughly the directly he's coming. For your play, that would be the 2B side of 3B.

The judgment part of the call concerns whether "F5 had his legs spread" constitutes access. Could the runner have slid and reach his hand or foot to the base? If so, then no OBS. If not, then OBS.

Note that the access allowed by the fielder need not be the runner's preferred access. For example, let's split the 2B side of 3B—the part of interest to an advancing runner—into 2 parts, the outfield side and the infield side.

If the BR rounds 2B and is well behind the line connecting the bases, so that he's approaching 3B from the LF side of the baseline, his preferred access to 3B might be the outfield side of the base. F5 can block that side, leave the infield side of 3B accessible, and thus comply with the OBS rule. This is an advanced fielding skill.

To anticipate the next question: if F5 sets up straddling the base, so that he's allowing access to the "middle" of the base, and then moves with the throw to block that part of the base, that could be OBS. If the runner has already committed to the (formerly) accessible part of the base and the fielder blocks that part before having the ball, that would be OBS. If the runner is far enough to adjust his path and slide, and the fielder has still allowed (now different) access to the base, that would not be OBS.

This is an advanced umpiring skill, and sometimes difficult to assess in real time and from the angles afforded by 2-umpire mechanics.

When in doubt, it's not OBS.

[wolfe_man]

4 minutes ago, maven said:

The FED OBS rule, as you know, requires that fielders without the ball allow the runner "access" to the base. That means a way for the runner to reach hand or foot to the base from roughly the directly he's coming. For your play, that would be the 2B side of 3B.

The judgment part of the call concerns whether "F5 had his legs spread" constitutes access. Could the runner have slid and reach his hand or foot to the base? If so, then no OBS. If not, then OBS.

Note that the access allowed by the fielder need not be the runner's preferred access. For example, let's split the 2B side of 3B—the part of interest to an advancing runner—into 2 parts, the outfield side and the infield side.

If the BR rounds 2B and is well behind the line connecting the bases, so that he's approaching 3B from the LF side of the baseline, his preferred access to 3B might be the outfield side of the base. F5 can block that side, leave the infield side of 3B accessible, and thus comply with the OBS rule. This is an advanced fielding skill.

To anticipate the next question: if F5 sets up straddling the base, so that he's allowing access to the "middle" of the base, and then moves with the throw to block that part of the base, that could be OBS. If the runner has already committed to the (formerly) accessible part of the base and the fielder blocks that part before having the ball, that would be OBS. If the runner is far enough to adjust his path and slide, and the fielder has still allowed (now different) access to the base, that would not be OBS.

This is an advanced umpiring skill, and sometimes difficult to assess in real time and from the angles afforded by 2-umpire mechanics.

When in doubt, it's not OBS.

As usual, excellent response.  I sometimes wonder how you guys cram all that knowledge into your heads and still are able to pull up so many details on short notice.  I hope someday that I can have this kind of rules knowledge and memory too. 

[834k3r]

1 minute ago, maven said:

The FED OBS rule, as you know, requires that fielders without the ball allow the runner "access" to the base. That means a way for the runner to reach hand or foot to the base from roughly the directly he's coming. For your play, that would be the 2B side of 3B.

The judgment part of the call concerns whether "F5 had his legs spread" constitutes access. Could the runner have slid and reach his hand or foot to the base? If so, then no OBS. If not, then OBS.

Note that the access allowed by the fielder need not be the runner's preferred access. For example, let's split the 2B side of 3B into 2 parts, the outfield side and the infield side.

If the BR rounds 2B and is well behind the line connecting the bases, so that he's approaching 3B from the LF side of the baseline, his preferred access to 3B might be the outfield side of the base. F5 can block that side, leave the infield side of 3B accessible, and thus comply with the OBS rule. This is an advanced fielding skill.

To anticipate the next question: if F5 sets up straddling the base, so that he's allowing access to the "middle" of the base, and then moves with the throw to block that part of the base, that could be OBS. If the runner has already committed to the (formerly) accessible part of the base and the fielder blocks that part before having the ball, that would be OBS. If the runner is far enough to adjust his path and slide, and the fielder has still allowed (now different) access to the base, that would not be OBS.

This is an advanced umpiring skill, and sometimes difficult to assess in real time and from the angles afforded by 2-umpire mechanics.

When in doubt, it's not OBS.

This is the kind of discussion I was hoping to have.

Some amplification:  this was game 2 of a double-header and F5 was F2 in the first game. He's a good ball player, and I have no doubt his catching experience is why he set up the way he did. To your point, @maven, he was set well before the arrival of the runner. The runner, as mentioned in the OP, did slide in safely.

I did think that it was a good thing F5's leg wasn't on the ground in front of 3B, because that would've been a sure case of OBS.

Funny how you think so many things in such a short period of time in those situations. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ChatGPT!

2 minutes ago, wolfe_man said:

As usual, excellent response.  I sometimes wonder how you guys cram all that knowledge into your heads and still are able to pull up so many details on short notice.  I hope someday that I can have this kind of rules knowledge and memory too. 

Same. That's why I love this site.