Illegal action by the batter?
Pitcher lets one go wild over the batter's head. Batter turns to avoid it, and his entire foot is on the ground outside the batter's box when the ball hits his bat. Must an intent to hit the ball be present for the batter to be banged out?
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was the ball fair or foul? I wouldn't penalize the hitter for a pitch that he was trying to avoid by calling him out. If this happened to me, I have a fair ball or a foul ball...IMO you can't bang a batter out for attempting to get out of the way...I might penalize him for not being smart enough to drop the bat head :-)
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Just treat it as a batted ball - fair or foul as the case may be. |
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I didn't intend to imply I would call the batter out. However, I would prefer to tell the coach that an intent to hit the ball is required to call the batter out, rather than "[name], you're right - his foot was out of the box, but it didn't touch the ground until just after the ball hit the bat."
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I don't know whether this play has ever been discussed on this board, but I've long held it in the back of my mind as one where a good umpire will ignore the letter of the rule. I never posted the question, because I knew how I would call it—fair or foul, not out.
Nowhere in the rule book is "intent" mentioned, but the book cannot be considered all-encompassing. We cannot expect every possible play to fall neatly within the letter of the "law." There are times when we have to ask ourselves, "Is this even remotely what the rules makers had in mind when they wrote the rule?" |
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Thansk David |
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Marty Feldman - Making the most of Graves Disease! RIP Marty.
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" Now here's a guy with nothing to do but make up TWP"s" |
Could you call him out? Sure, by rule you could.
Should you call him out? Not a chance. "Sorry coach, I missed that". |
4 Feet Wide
The box if 4 feet wide. How in the heck can he be out of the box while dodging a pitch. No way I call an out of the box out in this situation.
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Plausible deniability. :D |
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