Other fielder obstruction

[umpire1959]

Dixie Belles game. Should be same regardless of softball or baseball, but here is the situation.

Batter hits ball to right field in gap. Runner rounds first but trips over defensive player playing first base (clearly obstruction) as she rounds first base bag and attempts to go to second. Offensive player get up and goes back to first because ball is thrown in to second base by this time. Base umpire awards her second base because of the obstruction. Said she would have made it in his judgment had the obstruction not occurred. My question is, should she have attempted to go to second, if she gets thrown out then umpire enforces obstruction and says she would have made it had obstruction not occurred. Her going back to first I would think negates her "free base". Right or wrong? Thank you for your replies

 

[EAJuggalo]

Why would you reward the defense for obstructing the player? Or not make an award because the runner didn't want to make an out? I'm not going to bet my time on base to the umpire seeing things the same way I did and am going to do whatever I have to to not make an out. The runner is protected to the base that she would have reasonably attained had she not been obstructed, the BU was absolutely correct in awarding her second base if in his judgement she would have made it without being tripped by the F3. Some rulesets also have a minimum award that has to be made if there is obstruction.

 

[sjury]

No it doesn't. Whether she gets up and attempts 2b or gets up sees the through and retreats to first the umpire should award second...or even third if the umpire thinks she could have made it there had she not been obstructed. The batter is protected to and should be awarded the base(s).

 

[BretMan]

First off, the ruling won't necessarily be the same for baseball and softball. The two sports have several differences in their obstruction rules. Not only that, but different sanctioning bodies within each sport have their own nuances to the rule.

Why would the runner not be awarded an advanced base if she decided to go back to first? Think about that for a second. She went back to first because she got knocked on her ass and by the time she could get up the ball was coming back into the infield.

If that's the way the rule worked, fielders would have a huge incentive to trip every runner who was trying to advance to the next base. Why not? If you could disable the runner enough to stop her from advancing, and there's no base award when she stops advancing...this wouldn't be pretty...

I don't have any idea what the Dixie Belles rule book says about obstruction because I've never seen their rule book. Generally, obstructed runners are awarded whichever base the umpire judges they would have reached had they not been obstructed.

 

[umpire1959]

Thank you for your replies. Makes sense.