lamont4,
This kind of situation isn't easy to decide by written description. NFHS rules refer to obstruction and malicious contact, but obstruction isn't clearly defined, and malicious contact isn't defined at all. So some people get the mistaken idea that any avoidable contact is malicious, or that any contact that results in injury is malicious. Neither is necessarily true. Malicious means "with intent to harm". It's hard to say whether the act you describe as "plowed" was regarded by the umpire as malicious.
Was it obstruction? Without video, it's hard to tell. Each year the NFHS publishes Points of Emphasis, and for 2008 Obstruction is one of the POE. So we can get some guidance from that:
"OBSTRUCTION: Obstruction in its simplest form is an act either intentional or accidental, verbal or physical that hinders a runner or changes the pattern of play.
Fielders, particularly catchers and first basemen, are not allowed to deny access to the base without possession of the ball. Each player on offense and defense have areas where they can be positioned that reduces excessive contact. Plays where the ball, fielder and runner all converge at the same point – the “train wreck”– are a part of the game. If the fielder’s action while not in possession of the ball denies the runner access to the base, obstruction should be called. Umpires must
be aware that collisions might include malicious contact (by the offense or defense) and those penalties supersede the penalties for obstruction."
As I envision your description of the play, the ball and runner arrived at about the same time, but the catcher was stationary waiting for the ball. If the catcher was blocking access to the base while waiting for the ball, it's obstruction. The subsequent contact might or might not be malicious. (A forearm shiver is malicious, just trying to reach the base probably isn't. And no, the runner doesn't have to slide.)
If the catcher was sufficiently out of the baseline so that the runner had a reasonably straight path to the plate, it likely isn't obstruction. If he then turns to tag the runner, any collision is probably nothing. If the runner disregards the open path to the plate and runs instead into the catcher, then it's probably malicious.
Straight-forward, huh?
That's why we pay umpires the big bucks: they have to sort this out in real time.
