Interference or Obstruction

[DGriffin17]

Assume OBR for a travel ball game, runner on second base, one out.  There is a slow roller hit in the direction of the shortstop, but fieldable by the pitcher.  The shortstop starts to charge the ball, and in doing so, collides with the runner who is attempting to advance to 3B (all contact clearly unintentional).  The pitcher fields the ball well in front of the shortstop, probably about even with the mound, and seeing the runner not yet close to 3B, throws to 3B for a tag out.  Is the runner out for interfering with the SS attempting to make a play, is the runner declared safe and awarded 3B for obstruction by the SS, or does nothing "rules-based" happen and the result of the play stand?  Note, nothing was called other than the tag out at 3B, probably because the umpire(s) didn't see the contact, but it clearly impacted the play.  Of course the team in the field argued the SS was attempting to make a play on the ball, while the team at bat argued that the SS didn't have a play on the ball and obstructed the runner, resulting in the out. 

Does it all come down to the officials' judgement of whether the SS had a legitimate play on the ball?  Had the pitcher missed the ball, the shortstop would have been next in line to field it (although there likely would have been no out made).  With that said, technically any fielder running in the direction of the ball is attempting to make a play on it, even if it is not possible for them to catch it. 

[Jimurray]

9 minutes ago, DGriffin17 said:

Assume OBR for a travel ball game, runner on second base, one out.  There is a slow roller hit in the direction of the shortstop, but fieldable by the pitcher.  The shortstop starts to charge the ball, and in doing so, collides with the runner who is attempting to advance to 3B (all contact clearly unintentional).  The pitcher fields the ball well in front of the shortstop, probably about even with the mound, and seeing the runner not yet close to 3B, throws to 3B for a tag out.  Is the runner out for interfering with the SS attempting to make a play, is the runner declared safe and awarded 3B for obstruction by the SS, or does nothing "rules-based" happen and the result of the play stand?  Note, nothing was called other than the tag out at 3B, probably because the umpire(s) didn't see the contact, but it clearly impacted the play.  Of course the team in the field argued the SS was attempting to make a play on the ball, while the team at bat argued that the SS didn't have a play on the ball and obstructed the runner, resulting in the out. 

Does it all come down to the officials' judgement of whether the SS had a legitimate play on the ball?  Had the pitcher missed the ball, the shortstop would have been next in line to field it (although there likely would have been no out made).  With that said, technically any fielder running in the direction of the ball is attempting to make a play on it, even if it is not possible for them to catch it. 

I comes down to umpire judgement but something should have been called. There is only one protected fielder at a time and that would probably be the pitcher as he fielded the ball. So obstruction would be the call on the SS and judgement of safe or out at 3B depends on the action. If the pitcher missed or muffed the ball you could then protect one infielder who had a play, likely the SS, in which case the runner would be out for interference.

[maven]

1 hour ago, Jimurray said:

I comes down to umpire judgement but something should have been called. There is only one protected fielder at a time and that would probably be the pitcher as he fielded the ball. So obstruction would be the call on the SS and judgement of safe or out at 3B depends on the action. If the pitcher missed or muffed the ball you could then protect one infielder who had a play, likely the SS, in which case the runner would be out for interference.

I agree with this except for the last sentence. In particular, I would emphasize that a fielder-runner collision during a batted ball is always something, never nothing.

As I'm envisioning the play (in the hypothetical circumstance that F1 muffs the ground ball and F6 subsequently fields it), we have the muff and the F6/R2 collision at approximately the same time. In that case, I'm not transferring protection to F6 until after the collision, even if he ultimately fields the ball. And so it's still OBS on F6, as he was not protected (from OBS) when the collision occurred. 

In all codes this OBS will be penalized the same way: wait until the end of playing action, and award R2 3B. If the defense retires the BR, that out will stand (unaffected by the OBS against R2). This award is mandatory in FED, and expected in OBR.

In some TWP version of this play, we might theoretically fabricate a way to allow an out at 3B to stand, but you won't find me calling that, on any planet.

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, DGriffin17 said:

Does it all come down to the officials' judgement of whether the SS had a legitimate play on the ball? 

It comes down to judgment of who is the most likely to have a play -- and it can only be one person at a time.

 

Thsi is from JR:

If, at any given time, two or more fielders are expecting to field
batted ball, the one who is in a better position to field it (or who is
nearer the ball) is given priority over the other fielders. Only one
fielder can have priority at a given time, but priority can be
immediately taken from one fielder and given to another. On fly
balls, it is usually not practical or necessary to give any fielder priority
until the fly has reached its highest point.