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West,
You have a point with your scenarios, but we must realize that the umpire must apply judgement in these cases.
If we have, say, a rookie player who is fooled by an outside drop ball that is waaaay outside, and the ump things the batter wanted to hit the ball, then I would call that a strike. The batter indeed "struck" at the ball.
However, IMO, if a ball is close, and the batter is swinging to "protect" a steal of second, it would be just too close for me to actually call a ball. Even though it's clear, or rather almost clear, that the batter is just swinging to protect the runner. Judgement again, in this case.
FYI folks, I asked this in the baseball section as well, and there too, we have mixed responses.
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