Foul Ball (oops)

[David B]

Had one of those first tonight and thought I'd share just to make sure that you don't get caught like I did.

Batter squares to bunt and bunts the ball directly to the ground where it bounces straight up and hits the bat again.

I immediately called foul ball and no one said anything except a fan who said "you can't hit it twice JJ".

But as I thought about it, the batter did not intentionally hit the ball with the bat and the ball was in fair territory, so we should have had a fair ball and nothing else except for ???'s from the defense.

But, the batter is also in the batter's box. So I remember in FED that this makes it a foul ball.

So my question since I don't have my OBR books/manuals etc., at home, is this ruling the same in OBR.

FED covers it in 8-4-1d EXCEPTION.

We also had another bunt which was three feet foul and suddenly hits something and bounces back fair. Just a reminder for all of those umps who keep calling the ball foul as soon as it leaves the bat. (my partner did this three times in the first game)

Thanks for the help
David

[DG]

Originally posted by David B
Had one of those first tonight and thought I'd share just to make sure that you don't get caught like I did.

Batter squares to bunt and bunts the ball directly to the ground where it bounces straight up and hits the bat again.

I immediately called foul ball and no one said anything except a fan who said "you can't hit it twice JJ".

But as I thought about it, the batter did not intentionally hit the ball with the bat and the ball was in fair territory, so we should have had a fair ball and nothing else except for ???'s from the defense.

But, the batter is also in the batter's box. So I remember in FED that this makes it a foul ball.

So my question since I don't have my OBR books/manuals etc., at home, is this ruling the same in OBR.

FED covers it in 8-4-1d EXCEPTION.

We also had another bunt which was three feet foul and suddenly hits something and bounces back fair. Just a reminder for all of those umps who keep calling the ball foul as soon as it leaves the bat. (my partner did this three times in the first game)

Thanks for the help
David

Item 100 in 2004 BRD. OBR: Point not covered. OFF INTERP 71-100: FITZPATRICK: Same as FED. I was BU in a HS game early in the year and called this from the B (runner on 1B). Offensive coach put up a mild arguement, because the play would have resulted in an out. I did not think about it, it was an instant instinctive call. It had no bearing on the game, but when I got home I looked it up.

[Striker991]

I am in B. Pitch way inside makes the batter drop to the ground. Batter fails to lower the bat, ball hits the bat, rolls FAIR! Partner instinctively calls the ball foul, but no one pays attention to him. Seeing what's going on, I don't mimic his call (on a foul, we can always put everyone back, but if we kill a live play, it is very difficult to remedy). Catcher makes a great play to get the BR at 1st. I call him out. Dust settles, I call "time" to confer with my partner. He tells me he killed it. I acknowledge that I saw him. However, both coaches appear happy with the outcome and aren't arguing the play. We wait a second to see if anyone approaches us and nobody so much as glances in our direction. I tell him since no one is saying anything and the outcome was as it really should have been (no one stopped play or hesitated due to his call), we just let it go. We did, nothing happened, everybody happy.

[DG]

Either both coaches did not hear your partner say FOUL, or they are both clueless. Let it stand if they will.