Verbal/Physical Obstruction

Son got a warning for doing this in a 13U travel ball tourney. Curious to see what others say as far as rule interpretation.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike K:
This year our local Umpires have placed an emphasis on calling our guys for Verbal/Physical Obstruction for slapping their gloves to hold runners at 2nd base. Now, we've never gone crazy with slapping the glove, but we do like to make sure the runner knows our middle infielders are close by.

This seems like it's a part of the game, and always has been. Could it be that there really is no slapping your glove in baseball anymore? Or is it possible our local Umpires may be misinterpreting the rule. Rule 2-22-1 2011 NFHS Baseball Rules.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I do not and would not call obstruction for "slapping the glove" that is taking the rule to a place far beyond this galaxy... I don't know anyone who does...

Michael S Taylor has a great line when he teaches...."the governing authority makes the rules, but its up to the umpires to interpret them"........

so here is the NFHS rule.....

Obstruction is any act, physical or verbal that hinders a runner....


So you be the umpire............what is your interpretation of "any" act....?

Umpiring is a mix of science and art....the science is learning the rules....the art is the application...did the glove popping hinder the runner?........and is it included in the rule set you are using?.....NFHS is notorious for LCD rules....

Can't agree more with no call.

And no it's not been in the game forever!

I've only really noticed it like it is now for maybe 10 years tops, can't say I ever saw but very rarely prior to that, but man I see it consistenly in the say 13-16 ages these days.

And it bugs the heck outta me.. my coach, player, fan voice says, lose it please.
I coached 13-18's up til 2000 and we sure didn't do it nor did our opponents.

This should be one of the unwritten rules for sure.

An umpire would call this because either he's not very well um, er, ah, knowledable or he's mandated by higher authority as the OP leads and or it's bugging the heck out him; like it does me.

Coaches;
If you wanna hold runners, some well timed PO's and some good hard fakes to the bag work. Not out there slapping a glove, that should have zero effect on good base runners and BC's.
A couple near picks outta no where, or just good quick moves to get em back, they'll get tired of diving pretty quick, now ya got em respecting ya, and all it takes after that is selling it to a coach. Nothing better than hearing "back", seeing R2 diving back as the pitch is on the way, you ain't getting that slapping no gloves.

Baseball should be a quiet, serene, stealthy game, IMHO.

There is no way, no how I am calling obstruction on glove slapping. I personally thick slapping is stupid, it just tells the runner where the fielder is without taking his eyes off the guy that can pick him. When I coached Pony I told my guys to ignor the knucklehead behind him and pay attention to the guy with the ball. I also told them to absolutely not do themselves.
PIAA says we interpret the rules, which is true,and there is no way I can see that the defense is doing anything that is hindering the offense.

quote:

so here is the NFHS rule.....

Obstruction is any act, physical or verbal that hinders a runner....


So you be the umpire............what is your interpretation of "any" act....?

So a fielder tagging out a runner could be considered obstruction? By the rule there, it appears so LOL.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog 19:

quote:

so here is the NFHS rule.....

Obstruction is any act, physical or verbal that hinders a runner....


So you be the umpire............what is your interpretation of "any" act....?

So a fielder tagging out a runner could be considered obstruction? By the rule there, it appears so LOL.

And that is exactly why I posted my response as I did...I really dont know any umpires of our level who would call the glove popping as obstruction...players of these levels should not be affected by glove popping...

But the gist of the OP was the following....

"Or is it possible our local Umpires may be misinterpreting the rule. Rule 2-22-1 2011 NFHS Baseball Rules".....

My reason for posting the rule is the literal use of the word "ANY"......so is it possible that a NFHS umpire could interpret that rule to include glove popping as obstruction?...from the direct read, I'd say yes, its clearly possible....

The reason I bring up the art and science of umpiring is that oftentimes, just knowing the rule isnt enough.... and as evidenced by reading that rule, it might even cloud the issue.....

Knowing the rule, and knowing the application of the rules relative to the game is Umpiring.....


.

Along these lines, what about a base runner clapping? Would that constitute verbal interference? 2-21-1a(FED)

Here's another question: how about a player yelling "third base!" trying to sell a decoy overthrow on a pickoff attempt?