Following the Rules

[mbyron]

Well, you can feel sorry for yourself if you want, but you asked what other umpires thought and you received three responses. I'll offer one more.

I think that the umpire got himself in trouble by denying that the rule says what it does, and then fobbing the denial off on the interpreter.

I had a coach ask me exactly the same question this past season. "Doesn't he have to make an effort to avoid that pitch?" I told the coach: "Yes. And he did. Take your base."

Like other posters, I'm not going to place an undue burden on the batter to avoid a pitch in the batters box. The burden is on the pitcher to avoid the batter, and the only way I'm keeping a hit batter in the box is if he moves into the pitch.

Now you're worried that I lied to the coach about whether the batter made an effort to avoid the pitch. I didn't lie: what does "make an effort" mean?

[harmbu]

I think that the umpire got himself in trouble by denying that the rule says what it does, and then fobbing the denial off on the interpreter.

I had a coach ask me exactly the same question this past season. "Doesn't he have to make an effort to avoid that pitch?" I told the coach: "Yes. And he did. Take your base."

I can live with that. I have thought players leaned into pitches before and asked if he attempted to avoid the pitch. When I was told he did, I assumed the umpire saw it differently than I did and I moved on.

My main concern was with him admitting that he knew the rule, but that he was going to ignore it. Maybe I should have made that more clear in my original post.

Thanks