First base question

The coach has no reason to complain. Your son is in fair territory and isn't blocking the bag. What exactly was he complaining about.

The way I'm visualizing this is that your son is standing over the bag with both feet in fair territory on either side of the bag. And the runner has to put his leg in between your sons legs to make contact with the base... Is that right?

Are both feet in fair territory?

4.03 When the ball is put in play at the start of, or during a game, all fielders other than the catcher shall be on fair territory.

If, while straddling the bag, his left foot is in foul territory, he has a ligitimate gripe.

Instead of complaining, the opposing coach should teach his baserunners to come back to the bag (on pick-off attempts) on the inside of the base so that it is difficult for the first baseman to receive the throw. This will eventually result in throws that get past him.....then he will be forced to change to a more efficient positioning at the bag.......but it is not illegal.

Hold up guys, you are giving some bad information here.

NFHS rules Rule 1 section 1 art 4- At the time of the pitch, all fielders shall be on fair ground except the catcher who shall be in the catchers box. A fielder is in fair ground when at least one foot is in fair territory.

You do not have to have both feet in fair territory. From reading this it seems that the opposing coach seems to be implying that F3 is standing over the base obstructing his runner from tagging the bag.

HS Fed rules allow one foot out one foot in, MLB rules require both feet fair.

Will look up the exact rule numbers this afternoon.

Even if his left foot is in foul he is ok. As long as one foot is in fair or touching the line he is good to go.

Opps....

quote:

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Originally posted by piaa_ump:
The way I'm visualizing this is that your son is standing over the bag with both feet in fair territory on either side of the bag. And the runner has to put his leg in between your sons legs to make contact with the base... Is that right?

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Yes that is the way he stands

I brought this up at my association meeting last night. The concensus was that the position is perfectly legal. However......

It is possible that if there was a play at the base that the fielder can be called for obstructing the base.....

Scenario # 1

A. If the front of the bag is open/avilable, how can it be obstruction?

Scenario # 2

B. If, on the pick off from the 1 to 3, 3 neels with his right leg (to the fair side of the base) while making the tag, is this obstruction?

Umpires discretion in #2. If he intentionally blocks the bag then it is obstruction. If he goes to a knee to catch and blocks it is not.

In A, if the umpire does not call it then it is the team that has to make the call and do what needs to be done to move the leg out of the way.

#1- Imagine this....One of the teams I umpire, has a 6'4" 330 pound first baseman/Linebacker....he has size 15 feet and is standing over the bag......a runner has to place his leg in between the legs of F3 to reach the bag and to make contact has to be in full contact body to body with F3....I can see obstruction clearly in this scenario.....and I know that it wont be long before the testosterone takes over and a shoving match ensues.....

#2- per our state rules interpreter, we are to call obstruction on this.....

I agree with the Umpires descretion of whether it was to block the bag or make the catch.
But in the other scenario wouldn't the baserunner be coming back to the bag on his stomach with hand outreached for the bag? Also does the rule about the baserunner avoiding contact not apply here.

Not trying to be a smartaleck, just typing out loud.

so a catcher can block home plate while receiving a ball, but F3 can't??

Actually, a catcher can not block home plate intentionally. He can be standing there with the ball in hand or he can be in a position to catch the ball with the ball coming.
The problem is as has been said on here several times, what the rules say and what is called is two different things.
Most umpires will let a catcher get by with it far greater than any other player. Most umpires will let a catcher stand in the base line without the ball but would not dream of letting any other fielder.
This is why coaches tell their players to "Take him out." or "You know what you have to do to get back to the bag."
Again, we would go a long way as umpires if we would just make the calls early.

Any defensive player has the right to be at the bag, and block off a runner with his body, if he's got the ball. He's also got the right to be there if the ball's on the way and that's where it's going. He doesn't have the right to block the bag (or the path to it) if he doesn't have the ball and the ball isn't on the way (and by on the way I mean close to arriving, not just leaving the center fielder's hand.) The call should be the same at any base. It just tends to be most obvious (and dramatic) at the plate.

I agree. We had it in a middle school game the other day. The catcher was out in front of home plate in the base line without the ball or the ball coming. Our catcher was coming home and took him out by sliding legally. THere was a big ruffle at home. It should never have happened.
The umpires just warned both teams and went on.