[Tim C]

Grey:

Let's try to get to the crux of this issue:

You asked:

"What if, in OBR, the batter thinks an intentional ball 4 is coming and so drops the bat with the pitch on the way,"

And d3 stated:

"During the pitcher's delivery, the ball slips out out of the pitcher's hand and starts rolling towards home plate. The roll is relativly slow, but it is apparent that it will reach home plate."

Now these are nothing more than "red herrings" (I actually like McGuffin better - that was used by Alfred Hitchcock when he referred to items that keep a story going but really aren't important). What is important by the wording of these two statements is that each is a "legal pitch" . . .

So let's make this into a real world play and not a TWP:

(Please correct me if I am reading things into this!)

Let's say you have a real fast, left hand hitting superstar. Let's call him Ichiro for short.

The pitcher throws a legal pitch and the batter tosses his bat at the ball and takes off for first. He is clearly three or four steps out of the batter's box when the bat and ball connect.

So I digress for a moment:

We know that the pitch, even if bouncing or rolling on the ground is a legal pitch as long as it crosses a foul line so that ends the issue that d3 tossed at us. We know that is baseball a ball can be hit even if it bounces or is on the ground -- ergo -- hitting the ball is legal.

Now we have a rule that says a batter shall be called out if he is in contact with the ground outside the batter's box when a ball is hit . . . it does not make a difference if the ball has bounced, it is rolling on the ground or if the batter has a bat in his hands or not.

The ruling seems rather clear to me.

(As a little bonus point: no rule book tells us that we must wait until the ball gets to home plate before we hit it either ("hey Johnny, get up in front of the box and hit that curve ball before it breaks")which means we can, under all rules, hit a ball before it reaches the plate. Therefore in d3's question only the batter's position is of value not "where" the ball is positioned when struck.

This play could have been of value if it were made into a "real world play" rather than Third World.

Tee

[Edited by Tim C on Jan 12th, 2005 at 09:11 AM]