SoCalASABlue wrote:As stated in a post yesterday concerning ASA rules supplement 13, in order to avoid crashing into a defender WITH POSSESSION OF THE BALL AND WAITING TO APPLY THE TAG, the runner can slide, jump over the defender, go around the defender, or return to the last base occupied.
If the catcher is blocking the basepath without the ball, then she is obstructing the runner and you would expect that call to be made. However, obstruction is a delayed dead ball call. So if you daughter slid early rather than trying to avoid the catcher, your only hope is that the umpire would see it as obstruction and call it properly.
As stated previously by Comp, there is no mandatory slide rule unless it is a local rec league rule (at least as far as ASA is concerned).
The HP could also perceive a "train wreck" if F2 was not obstructing and the attempt to catch an errant throw caused her to veer in the runner's path.
I have to admit that I don't have a copy of the current rule book...but my 2006 ASA book states:
If a defensive player is fielding a thrown ball and the flight of the ball carries or draws him/her into the path of the base runner, this would not be a crash.
If the ball, runner, and defensive player all arrive at the same time and contact is made, the umpire should not invoke the collision rule (interference) or obstruction. This is merely incidental contact.The wording may have changed a bit.