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Originally Posted by tibear
I would doubt that because the batter is free to switch from which side they want to bat from in between each pitch. I know the rules aren't meant to be fair but it would seem strange that the batter is free to choose which way they want to hit the ball for every pitch but the pitcher has to declare for each batter??? Doesn't make sense. (Which doesn't mean it isn't true!!)
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The reason it makes sense is that if one or the other does not have to declare, then you have the batter getting in one of the boxes, the pitcher putting the ball in the glove and getting ready to pitch with the handedness that gives him an advantage over that handedness of a hitter... thus the hitter steps out and gets in the OTHER box ... then the pitcher switches back... ad infinitum. We'd never ever get a pitch in.
Basically, to avoid this stymie, the rulesmakers require the pitcher to declare, THEN the batter gets in the box that is most advantageous to him.