chazbz1 wrote:Is this a force out? If not, the catcher does not yet have possession of the ball. By the time the ball is fully in the glove, the slider's leg will be past the catcher's leg. She should make contact with the plate before the catcher can sweep the tag. (She should be safe...don't you wish fastpitch had instant replay?!!!) Also to be considered is the position of the catcher in regards to the base-path...We had a similar situation last season and the catcher was called for obstructing the baseline.
You can't tell by that picture whether there was obstruction or not. There COULD have been obstruction. The OP states the runner hit the catchers leg (and came to a stop ? presumably not reaching home plate?).
If the runner was not impeded to the point in that picture, and if the impeding of the runner happened after the catcher caught the ball (which obviously was 1/10th of a second after picture).. there was no obstruction.
It is not illegal to "obstruct the baseline". That is not the rule.
Based on that picture and the op's description of the play, I highly doubt I would have called obstruction.
I call that play "softball".