Hey Big Dip of Cope

Given that situation that the batter swings at a pitch, the pitch then hits the batter, and the ball hits the ground,,,, then yes the batter should run to 1st before the catcher picks up the ball and tags him out.

 

True, the umpire was wrong he was either thinking pro rules or college rules. You are correct about the rule in high school. Not sure how far he'll get with a protest though.

 

I'd have to look that unusual situation up, but if memory serves, U-R-Out and I had a short conversation about this situation earlier in the year and I think the ball is dead and the batter gets 1st base because he got hit is the correct ruling. If I'm wrong on this, and the batter is out, the ball is still dead because it hit the batter... but I think I recall this same situation brought up at a rules clinic and U-R-Out pointed out the fact that the ball is dead and the batter gets 1st.... maybe he can chime in here....

 

If I had known I could get awarded 1st base even after striking out simply by leaning into strike 3 as I was swinging,,, my on base pct. would've been much better back in my playing days...

Big Dip,,,, I agree this is an unusual situation,,, but I have seen the batter who swings and gets hit, tagged by the catcher and ruled out. And to me, that makes the most sense because "he was swinging".

Just don't make much sense to award him 1st base when he swung the bat.

 

I agree. I don't think I've ever had that situation occur in my 10 years of umping. In fact, if memory serves, when we talked about this during our pre-season meetings, I thought if the kid swung, he was out, not awarded first..... but again, I'd have to lean on U-R-Out to remember if this was in fact the situation we argued about.... I really have not had time to look it up - DH @ Alex. Cent. last night, DH @ N. Greenville today, DH @ Montreat tomorrow... I've bearly had time to kiss my wife goodbye .... I promise I'll look it up as soon as I can. In the meantime, I hope it doesn't happen.....lol

 

You know how that goes. It will happen at Montreat on Sunday

 

Ok, looked it up in the OBR last night while on the toilet (which is where I get most of my baseball rules reading done) and its says the batter is out, however, if the ball hit the batter, the ball is dead, so no the batter can not go to 1st, nobody can advance - it makes sense - its not the defenses fault the ball gets away... what if it hits the batters helmet and he swings and the ball goes over the backstop? You can't reward the offensive runners a base because the ball goes out of play. By that same logic, if the ball hits the batter and the batter swings, the ball is dead and the batter is out.

 

Thanks Big Dip,,,,,,, I thought he was out. Thanks for clearing up the dead ball part after the out. Btw, I've only seen this actually happen once,,,,, the Area 3 legion finals several years ago (Kannapolis vs. Greensboro). I only remember Kann's Blake Ketner threw one of his tailing fastballs into a righthanded Gboro hitter, the kid swung (strike 3) and missed, and the ball struck the batter on his leg. Don't remember if there were any baserunners or not, but I remember it was out 3, and nobody questioned the call out, again I guess because everyone clearly saw the batter swing.

Thanks for looking it up.

 

Another "you make the call"

Got another question for anyone EXCEPT umpires...

*** Here's the situation, tie ballgame in last inning, home team batting with 2 outs and bases loaded. Batter hits a shot up the middle past the mound, but ball strikes base umpire on the leg. Shortstop snags ricocheted ball off umps' leg, and tags 2nd for forceout.

Whats the call and how do you score it in the book? Again, umpires please let non-umpires take a crack first. Thanks.

*** Hint: This call will make coaches go ballistic if they don't know the ruling.

 

Unlike basketball were the official is part of the playing surface, in this case as soon as the ball hits the umpire, the ball is dead, the base runners would advance one base, the batter is credited with a base hit and the game is over.