Quote:
Originally posted by bob jenkins
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
I don't understand why you think this is a point not covered.
In the generating play:
1. The pitch is not a strike.
2. It is the fourth ball.
ERGO:
The batter is awarded first.
What is difficult about this?
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Is that what you think the intent of the rule is? If F1 throws a cock-shot, but B1 sticks his hand in front of the plate and knocks down the ball before it enters the strikezone, it should be a ball? Somehow I have a hard time envisioning the rules makers thinking that is the correct call.
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Bob:
No offense but that's a silly, silly argument, especially coming from someone who is generally considered by internet denizens to be an expert. It's known as
reductio ad absurdum, and everyone knows it is fallacious.
Everyone also knows about the unwritten "rule" that says one team cannot egregiously flaunt the intent of a statute. "Last time by," for example, does not protect a runner who misses second by 30 feet. The definition of balls and stikes does not protect a batter who sticks his hand in front of the strike zone to prevent a pitch from becoming a strike. (Good common sense might, I suppose.)
If such an obviously unsportsmanlike action had happened in my game, I am certain I would simply have sat the young man down. (And brought in a pinch hitter with a 3-1 count.)
Remember, the generating play (and my play) features a batter who gets hit in the customary way in a customary spot. His action
looks legal to the average participant/fan. You and I are both experienced enough in the ways of the young to realize that the batter in my game thought he would go to first because he was hit by the pitch. That it was ball four, I'm sure, never entered his mind.
Bob, you can do better.