Hit batter - Maybe not ?

[nickrego]

This was a first for me.

14-15 YRO Babe Ruth game.

Pitch comes in high and inside on the batter. Batter stands up straight and raises the bat above his head to let the ball pass under his arms. His sleeves are hanging and the ball hits his front sleeve.

I call time, point to 1st base and tell the batter to ‘take your base’.

The batter looks at me and says, “No it’s OK, it didn’t hit me.” I say “OK, batter says it didn’t hit him. Ball 3 to the batter !”

Offensive coach mildly goes off on the player. The player looks at me again, and I tell him he did the right thing being honest.

I know the ball hit his sleeve because I saw and heard it. But there is no way I am going to argue that it did hit him. After all, it is his body/uniform, and he should know if he was hit or not.

Batter was walked on the next pitch.