Obstruction vs Interference in Professional Baseball - Basic Overview

The following is a very basic illustration of the difference between offensive interference and defensive obstruction in baseball.
www.closecallsports.com/2019/...
In general, the offense interferes with the defense by impeding a fielder from making a play while the defense obstructs the offense by impeding a runner from running the bases. There are exceptions to the general principles (e.g., a fielder CAN obstruct during a batted ball just as a runner CAN interfere during a thrown ball), but this video deals with generalities for the sake of simplicity.
During a batted ball, the fielder whom the umpire designates as the player entitled to field the ball has the “right of way” to field the ball and an illegal interaction between runner and fielder generally is interference (contact is not required).
At any other time (e.g., a thrown ball), the baserunner has the “right of way” to run the bases without impedance from the defensive team and an illegal interaction between runner and fielder in this scenario ordinarily results in an obstruction call (contact not required).
There are additional variations to this general theme (e.g., catcher’s interference [which is a different rule entirely], willful and deliberate interference that supersedes obstruction, etc.), which we discuss at www.CloseCallSports.com. Visit the website and subscribe for more baseball rules analysis, such as the difference between Obstruction Type 1/A and Type 2/B.

[@TrustedMonster]

Epicly helpful

[@markphilippsjr]

Great video, ....... Sharing it

[@TheTSRush]

Big debate going on with Aaron Judge and how he slides (hand up). Someone even did a Aaron Judge sliding compilation video. Yes, his hand is up but the double play was successful. Is he interfering every single time by raising his hand as he slides, even if the double play is successfully turned?

[@romeoblackmar3646]

As an umpire I am surprised how many coaches do not know the difference between obstruction and interference!

[@justinbuford4416]

In the case of the runner obstruction at 3rd, had the 3rd baseman not picked his feet up, would obstruction still be called?

[@alexchavez3383]

Most likely, yes, because he still would have impeded the runner from going home. The runner would likely had to jump over him or go around him, both of those actions slowing him down.

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

I'm actually surprised how many umpires get this wrong at the youth level. I've always understood interference (as described in this video) as the fielder "has the right to the ball" and seen umps call it obstruction on the fielder. It's actually grounds to "protest" the game cause the umps got the "rule" wrong.

[@GameShowMike]

What is the call if a fielder attempting to put out a batter-runner runs into the batter-runner and knocks him/her down to the ground?

[@CloseCallSports]

Do you have a particular play in mind. Hard to talk about something like this without an example as there is quite a bit of nuance - tmac

[@GameShowMike]

@@CloseCallSports here’s what happened. Last night I had a bird’s eye view of the following incident:
The batter hit a ground ball fielded by the first baseman. As the batter-runner was heading towards the first base safety zone, the first baseman was heading toward the base at a similar speed. Just as the batter-runner reached the first base safety zone, the first baseman collided with the batter-runner and knocked him to the ground.

[@felixvallieres4729]

if it’s intentional the batter-runner should be safe obviously, but in the case of a accidental contact it’s a bit tricky. Do you have any footage of the play? I play high level and I also umpired a lot!

[@GameShowMike]

@@felixvallieres4729 unfortunately I don’t.

[@MarcYoder1]

Absolutely NOT interference!
(It was OBSTRUCTION) ;)