Catcher Obstruction or foul ball

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Jun 6, 2016
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Chicago
Every time I have seen an rule regarding this infraction it is stated that the catcher obstructs the batter's attempt to strike or tap the ball or something along those lines. The definitions of the terms include for Interference, offensive and for obstruction, defensive. I have never seen it referred to as catcher's interference in a rule book. (Limited to USA and NFHS, I admit)

We are talking about softball, not MLB, it's a totally different animal. You will also find in their rulebook the term balk, that does not exist in softball. Neither does catcher's interference, it's catcher's obstruction because the catcher is on defense and the defense obstructs, only the offense can interfere officially in softball.

Fair enough. From an English language standpoint it doesn't make sense, but if softball wants to call Catcher's Interference "Catcher's Obstruction" even though it literally doesn't meet the definition of the word "obstruction" (but it absolutely meets the definition of "interference"), let's go with that.

After doing a little reading, this appears to be at least partially an NFHS problem. I believe it's "Catcher's Obstruction" for NFHS baseball rules, too.
 
Jun 7, 2019
170
43
It IS obstruction, but to be fair, I've heard a lot of good coaches and umpires call it catcher's Interference. There's an easy way to remember the distinction. In Obstruction, it's a delayed dead ball, and the batter or runner is protected. With interference, it's a dead ball, and the player who interfered is out and all runners return to the base they were on. Regardless of the term used, it can't be interference. If the batter stroked a single and the runner from 2B scored, interference would have to call the batter out and return the runner to 2B. Obstruction allows this particular example to stand.

In the end, we all know what the call is, regardless of the term that is used.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
The way I taught myself to remember: You have to have an “O” and you can only have one “O”. You either have Obstruction (defense) or you have the Offense (interference).
 

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