Quote:
Originally Posted by bigjohn
pretty simple answer here. If the batter meant to kick the ball he is out, if the umpire reads his mind and see that he did not mean to kick the ball it was purely an accidental kick, foul ball! 
I always heard no official can read minds, but the rule expect you to!
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I love how you try to use one sport about a word and bring it immediately to another sport on a totally unrelated issue. Someone kicking something that they are not in control of or is not in their hand is very easy to identify as compared to where someone is trying to throw something. As a basketball official we do this determination all the time. A baseball is a smaller object and if someone is trying to kick a baseball while moving and may or may not be in their way to see what they are trying to do to contact it or not. And it is not really likely that a baseball is going to be kicked on purpose in many situations as it would possibly put that player in jeopardy of being called out and for contacting a live ball and players tend to realize that fact. Usually a batter is going to try to avoid getting hit unless the ball is obviously foul is not only unlikely for that situation to take place, it would be very rare to even take place in a single game based on all the sets of circumstances that would be needed to even have a realistic scenario of someone intentionally kicking a ball. A player in another sport that performs an act that is seen 50 times or more in a game is a little different to determine what is done intentionally to something that might not happen in 50 games an umpire might work. Batter trying to kick a ball on purpose would stick out like a sour thumb compared with all the things we have to do in a baseball game.
Peace