Little League Umpire: Obstruction - you make the call.

Baseball rule obstruction call. If you were the umpire, would you have gotten this call right? Baseball rule myths for Little League sometimes are more difficult to get right when the rule is different in other leagues. This is a case where, because this is a Little League game, the rule is applied differently than in MLB.

[geteven]

time to teach these announcers that the field going for the ball only matters when it is batted

[stevedandy]

In LL, that is Type "A" obstruction. The collision happened BEFORE the catcher had possession of the ball and the runner is awarded the next base (in this case, HP).
Good call.

[IAmJustSaying]

Player must have the ball. The catcher was a second away from possession of the ball. Good call by HP ump.

[alanmartins]

The catcher got in the lane way, way before the ball got there. correct call.

[cowboycarpenter]

If the catcher had not blocked the base line the runner would have been past him before he caught the ball. catcher could have stepped straight left and caught ball and not been in baseline.

[monkeydrills]

Spot on call based on the little league rules. People need to understand the difference in rulings between each level of play.

[danielandsolange]

Good call, he's already in the baseline, therefore the runner is safe!

[relytj]

This is clearly obstruction by either interpretation of the rules.

People are confused what a defensive player has a right to do. The defensive player has a right to make the initial play (to field the ball) on a *batted* ball. The defensive player does not have a right to stand in the base line while waiting for a *throw*. That's the difference: A batted ball and a thrown ball.

This is clearly *not* malicious contact.

MJH-Baseball is doing a great job explaining this.

[charlessmith]

It was obstruction---real obstruction. This happened even before the ball was caught.The catcher blocked the whole base line even before he made the catch. If I were the umpire, the catcher is at fault and gets a obstruction penalty and the runner that was supposed to be tagged out --the runner is awarded "safe" at home as the penalty for the obstruction.

[elitegiant]

ok, those of you who said the runner is out are wrong.  This is distinction between interference and obstruction.  Interference (7.09(j)) says the runner is out if he fails to avoid a fielder who is attempting to field a BATTED ball or INTENTIONALLY interferes with a thrown ball.  as the video said LL removed the condition of "fielding the ball" as it pertains to the thrown ball.  This then becomes obstruction because in 7.06 as in interference the runner must give way to the fielder, the fielder must give way to the runner.

[theoneandonly]

stop it at 52 to 53 seconds and u can see that the runners hand was on home plate and the catcher didnt have the tag!

[blueloraine]

This is type-A little league obstruction for a play being made on a runner. The only instruction I would give here is that the plate umpire should have called time immediately to stop any other runners advancing. Good video...thanks.

[TJttts]

he obstructed the base line before he had possession of the ball. since fielding the ball isn't in the rule he should have stepped beside the baseline to field the ball then turned and tagged or stepped into the base line to tag the runner

[welliaintnever]

Obstruction! Coaches! Teach your catchers to field the ball inside the foul lines or outside the foul lines an arm's length away! If it's a bad throw then the runner will be safe anyway!! If the runner run's into the catcher when he is off the plate and off the baseline then the runner is out!!

[alexh]

Even by MLB rules this is still obstruction. You can't block the plate, without the ball

[theoneandonly]

rule or no rule im pretty sure even in my years u have to tag the runner with the hand glove u have the ball in.. If u watch closely the runner hand hit home plate before the catcher even got his glove on the runner so there for the runner is SAFE!

[hfontanez]

That was the little league rule 40 years ago when I played. I was a catcher, so I remember that rule clearly.

[jayit]

He didn't tag him in time so even if it isn't obstruction he's still safe.

[willydiba]

The call is correct- the runner is awarded home plate based on rule 7.09, which states that the runner must have a clear path to the plate at all times. As you can see at 0:20, the catcher is standing right in the path of the runner before he has posseion of the ball. Please do not argue with me, I know all about this because i catch for my Babe Ruth team, and we lost a game very recently in the bottom of the 7th on a similar call. The catcher must stand in front of the plate until has the ball, after that, he can do whatever he wants.

[BFRedrocksArizona]

Obstruction, as stated by many at this point, is the correct call based on current LL rules. As a plate umpire, to be honest, I probably would have called the runner safe based on him beating the tag, with the contact between runner and fielder being incidental at that point. I think the runner is more protecting himself than running into the catcher after jamming his knee and making his slide less than textbook. So while my resultant (safe) call would have been correct, I probably (mistakenly) wouldn't have made it based on obstruction. Thanks for the video.