Were can I find Obstruction ruling

[GIMNEPIWO]

Catchers should always be in fair territory waiting to receive a throw

Not always true, but close ...

Caught, baseball, FP & SP for over 35 years and I'm more than very comfortable with my statement.

Would they be okay standing on home plate?

Why would they stand on the plate? I said in fair territory, which could include the plate, but that wouldn't be too smart since that puts the defender away from where the play needs to occur to reach the desired results. The odds of tagging a runner out from there are somewhat reduced than those if you intercept the runner prior to reaching the plate area.

But regardless, the runner is rarely going to be approaching the plate in fair territory, hence should have zero affect on the catcher/defender receiving the ball. Yes, I know it happens, but not as often as it does not.

So in your 35 years ... Had you ever recieved a throw from F5 or F7 standing in foul ground ? And if you did were you standing in fair terrrtory ... Like I said ...

EDIT: I will concede, in advance, that even in the situation I describe ... There are still times when you will set up in fair territory based on the runners base path ...

[MTR]

So in your 35 years ... Had you ever recieved a throw from F5 or F7 standing in foul ground ? And if you did were you standing in fair terrrtory ... Like I said ...

EDIT: I will concede, in advance, that even in the situation I describe ... There are still times when you will set up in fair territory based on the runners base path ...

I have no idea where you are going, but yes I have CHASED an errant throw into foul ground from where I was set up in fair territory, but if I impeded the runner, I'm still guilty of OBS.

And before anyone raises the issue, yes there are obvious times when a play could be coming from the foul side where the catcher needs to adjust

[GIMNEPIWO]

So in your 35 years ... Had you ever recieved a throw from F5 or F7 standing in foul ground ? And if you did were you standing in fair terrrtory ... Like I said ...

EDIT: I will concede, in advance, that even in the situation I describe ... There are still times when you will set up in fair territory based on the runners base path ...

I have no idea where you are going, but yes I have CHASED an errant throw into foul ground from where I was set up in fair territory, but if I impeded the runner, I'm still guilty of OBS.

And before anyone raises the issue, yes there are obvious times when a play could be coming from the foul side where the catcher needs to adjust

I am not 'going' anywhere ... You said ' ALWAYS' ... I said " Not always, but close" ... You seemed to indicate you disagree'd or wanted clarification ... I am not talking about an errant throw or the Backstop being guilty of OBS ... Just your statement that a Catcher should always be waiting in fair ground to receive a throw ... example ... Play at 3rd, the ball coming from F4 gets away from F5 and hits the fence ... F7 is backing up as she should be ... Base runner tries to make it home ... The throw to F2 is coming from F7 standing in foul ground and the base runners base path is on or near the base line ... Now, you as F2 are setting up in foul ground to receive the throw or fair ground ?

[MTR]

So in your 35 years ... Had you ever recieved a throw from F5 or F7 standing in foul ground ? And if you did were you standing in fair terrrtory ... Like I said ...

EDIT: I will concede, in advance, that even in the situation I describe ... There are still times when you will set up in fair territory based on the runners base path ...

I have no idea where you are going, but yes I have CHASED an errant throw into foul ground from where I was set up in fair territory, but if I impeded the runner, I'm still guilty of OBS.

And before anyone raises the issue, yes there are obvious times when a play could be coming from the foul side where the catcher needs to adjust

I am not 'going' anywhere ... You said ' ALWAYS' ... I said " Not always, but close" ... You seemed to indicate you disagree'd or wanted clarification ... I am not talking about an errant throw or the Backstop being guilty of OBS ... Just your statement that a Catcher should always be waiting in fair ground to receive a throw ... example ... Play at 3rd, the ball coming from F4 gets away from F5 and hits the fence ... F7 is backing up as she should be ... Base runner tries to make it home ... The throw to F2 is coming from F7 standing in foul ground and the base runners base path is on or near the base line ... Now, you as F2 are setting up in foul ground to receive the throw or fair ground ?

Yes, on the initial play as F2 I'm stepping into fair terrority for a possible play at the plate.

The answer to the subsequent part of your scenario, read the last sentence of my previous post.

Maybe I should state it in this manner: As a catcher, I am always going to step into fair territory to receive a throw for a possible play at the plate UNLESS the ball is coming from foul ground on the left side and then will ADJUST accordingly.

[GIMNEPIWO]

So in your 35 years ... Had you ever recieved a throw from F5 or F7 standing in foul ground ? And if you did were you standing in fair terrrtory ... Like I said ...

EDIT: I will concede, in advance, that even in the situation I describe ... There are still times when you will set up in fair territory based on the runners base path ...

I have no idea where you are going, but yes I have CHASED an errant throw into foul ground from where I was set up in fair territory, but if I impeded the runner, I'm still guilty of OBS.

And before anyone raises the issue, yes there are obvious times when a play could be coming from the foul side where the catcher needs to adjust

I am not 'going' anywhere ... You said ' ALWAYS' ... I said " Not always, but close" ... You seemed to indicate you disagree'd or wanted clarification ... I am not talking about an errant throw or the Backstop being guilty of OBS ... Just your statement that a Catcher should always be waiting in fair ground to receive a throw ... example ... Play at 3rd, the ball coming from F4 gets away from F5 and hits the fence ... F7 is backing up as she should be ... Base runner tries to make it home ... The throw to F2 is coming from F7 standing in foul ground and the base runners base path is on or near the base line ... Now, you as F2 are setting up in foul ground to receive the throw or fair ground ?

Yes, on the initial play as F2 I'm stepping into fair terrority for a possible play at the plate.

The answer to the subsequent part of your scenario, read the last sentence of my previous post.

Maybe I should state it in this manner: As a catcher, I am always going to step into fair territory to receive a throw for a possible play at the plate UNLESS the ball is coming from foul ground on the left side and then will ADJUST accordingly.

Well ... yeah, you could say that ... or you could say something like : ' Yep, you're right, it's not always true, but close ' ... But since you didn't ... I will present a scenario where you wouldn't set up in fair territory and ADJUST ..

F5 playing in front of the bag, batter hits a hard ground ball and F5 takes it off the shin and it rolls into foul ground ... The base runner from 3rd is heading home ... The Backstop never moves into fair territory and waits to receive the throw in foul ground ... You see, " Not always true, but close "

EDIT: Before I saw you're original statement I was at practice and had just told my F2 where I wanted her ALWAYS setting up ... And wouldn't you know it, on the very next play ... So, I said to her, well, "ALMOST all the time unless ... "

[MTR]

Well ... yeah, you could say that ... or you could say something like : ' Yep, you're right, it's not always true, but close ' ... But since you didn't ... I will present a scenario where you wouldn't set up in fair territory and ADJUST ..

F5 playing in front of the bag, batter hits a hard ground ball and F5 takes it off the shin and it rolls into foul ground ... The base runner from 3rd is heading home ... The Backstop never moves into fair territory and waits to receive the throw in foul ground ... You see, " Not always true, but close "

EDIT: Before I saw you're original statement I was at practice and had just told my F2 where I wanted her ALWAYS setting up ... And wouldn't you know it, on the very next play ... So, I said to her, well, "ALMOST all the time unless ... "

Okay, you can say that you are right, absolutely correct......negatively thinking of F5's skill, but yes, I guess you are correct. Don't recall ever having that problem, but you are right, it could happen.

But the more I think about it while typing, I always stepped out over the plate on every batted ball, even on foul pop-ups. Habit I guess, but that's me. I did not have the best mechanics and always set-up with the body facing 1B and had a tendency to lean into the pitch. Like I said, not the best mechanics.

[tcannizzo]

xample:
runner on 1st, bunt and run is put on, ball is thrown to f4 covering 1st base, ss is covering 2nd base without the ball. R1 is attempting to reach 3rd base. The ss is standing on 2nd base so the runner changes her path and runs around her, she is thrown out at 3rd base a,d 99 times out of 100 NOBODY is calling obstruction because it is happening so fast and the blue did not see it.

Now my runners wont run around that runner and they will be falling to the ground because of the contact that would take place because they are not going to change the path they should be taking to get to third. Now 98 out of 100 we are going to get the obstruction call because after the contact, the blindest of the blind can see a kid on the ground and they will know what happened.

Now you umpires can now come and say you will toss me from game, and a good umpire doesnt need to have contact to call it and blah blah blah, but as a coach, I know what the reality is, and if my runner changes her path to 3rd, we will be out at third..... period. So we need to coach for real world situations and not what is supposed to happen.

We won an ASA 16u NQ in OHIO about 7 years ago on the exact play described above. And the crowd on the opposing team was furious that our runner "ran into the ss on purpose" to which I reply.... heck yeah she did, but only because your ss was standing in her way.

From the OP, I seriously doubt a coach was screaming at his runner to run into f5, but if he were and she changed her path to specifically run into a player that was not in her way, that is probably getting the coach ejected.

Let's get something straight, there can be a big difference betweeen "running into" someboday and "crashing into" somebody. The former is legal, the latter is illegal and USC leading to ejection(s).

[Iluvblue]

can you please point me to the spot in the asa rule book that differentiates between "running into," and "Crashing into," someone so I can be sure to explain to blue that my player only "Ran into" the defensive player planted on 2nd base without the ball:)

[MTR]

can you please point me to the spot in the asa rule book that differentiates between "running into," and "Crashing into," someone so I can be sure to explain to blue that my player only "Ran into" the defensive player planted on 2nd base without the ball:)

Don't need one, I'll know the UC when I see it and eject the player involved.

[Iluvblue]

Then I got nothing to worry about, as nobody will be watching that runner.... lol.