When Is It Obstruction ??

OBSTRUCTION???

WOW!!! Is all I can say. I just read this and in all situations, if the umpires called them that way, they were wrong on all counts. Remember, Obstruction can only be called on the defense, Interference can only be called on the offense; Interference is an automatic "Dead-ball", while obstruction is a "Delayed Dead-ball".
Situation 1: If the official did indeed call "Interference, then there could not have been a double play. Once he makes that call, the ball is dead immediately and he cannot assume a double play. He should have let the play happen since an out was made on the tag. Now he could have called the double play on excessive contact by the runner.
Situation 2: The S/S has to give the runner the "right-of-way" and if she doesn't, Obstruction should have been called. This would have protected the runner to wherever the umpire thought the runner would have made had the obstruction not occurred, this might have only been protecting her to third.
Situation 3: This is a clear-cut case of obstruction, even at the Collegiate level, but especially at any lower level, because the rule at lower levels state that the defensive person MUST have the ball before she can block any base.
Hope this helps everyone with this basically simple rule.

 

The problem that exist in summer ball and in High school ball, is that there is NOT enough training. To work H/S ball, all that is required is to attend their rules meetings, where they sit around and read rules from the book; attend the state meeting, which is nothing more than a get together; take the state rules test, buy the uniform, go to 2 or 3 scrimmages and presto, you're an umpire. NOT!!!
I have offered in the past to put on mini camps, not only for summer organizations, but for the H/S officials. Only South Carolina ASA has taken me up on the offer. The rest are so-called trained by the experienced umpires already on staff, and the majority of these do it wrong also, so naturally the problems are just handed down. Windmiller knows what type of camps that we put on, because we held a 3-day collegiate camp at Peace.
We are willing to help.

 

Let's do it agian...

 

I will check with Mickey, I know we are doing something at the Cardinals Classic in Rock Hill, SC this summer, but I will have the check anything else.

 

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