Batter's hands
 

Are batters allowed to extend any part of the fore arms and/or hands across the plane of the plate while the pitch is in motion? ruling?

You have nothing to rule on here unless the batter is hit by the pitch while doing this.

You'll see this frequently as kids swing at outside pitches or with guys who crowd the plate. Like Cub42 said you have nothing until he's hit. In which case its "Time, the pitch is a strike, the batter stays here." If he's swinging or was hit in the zone while not swinging. These always cause interesting situations after you make that call. Including the infamous "the hands are part of the bat arguement"

Where do questions like this come from? I'm not admonishing the poster for asking, but almost 30 years in this business and I still can't figure out where some of these questions come from. :eek: My guess is that people are taught these fallacies by inept coaches when they were just kids!

They are passed from father to son. I've been hearing the "hands are part of the bat" argument for 20 years now. That's one full generation.

:(

He can stick his head in the strike zone, if he wishes.

Now, if the batter is doing something just to induce a balk, then we might have something.

A good general guideline is that if the rules do not specifically prohibit something, it is probably not illegal.

Ozzy- I think it may be time for you to retire. Try to go back 30 yrs when you were a rookie and needed some clarification or re- assurance on something that was not in the rules. Give us newbees a break!! If you have nothing positive to offer, please refrain.

Over the decades I've heard (and maybe at one time believed) just about all the myths and misconceptions about the rules, but this is the first time I have ever heard that holding your hands in the strike zone might be a problem.

Well I got news for you!! I had a batter extending hands so far over the plate, that the pitcher complained he couldn't see F2's target. Well, I agreed and had the batter back off the hands. In this case, The B1 was deliberately trying to distract the pitcher. Thats was my ruling and I'm sticking to it. LOL.

Where in the heck was the catcher's target for the batter to be obstructing the pitcher's view of it?

I'd leave this alone. What level of baseball was this?

Well back when I was a rookie, we looked things up for ourself because we didn't have an internet. But us old guys understand how difficult it is to research something when there is always someone who can give you the answer, (we called that the easy way out).

It is one thing to ask a question as a rookie, it is entirely rude to ignore the right answer an tell us "your doing it your way."

I'm with you OZ!!!!

Are you saying you've never asked for rules help on this board?
If you have then your response may be a bit hypocritical.

RNG could have looked for hours regarding his question and never found anything, obviously since there was nothing to find and then came to the board for help from the old timers.
If, as you say, he's taking the "easy way out" it's only because you are making the assumption that he didn't search the book prior to asking.

Thank you Co !!!!!

Your point is well taking however, if he is going to ask for the proper ruling and then imply that he was going to handle his own way anyhow, ("Thats was my ruling and I'm sticking to it").

Then why ask for help?