Not the same ole hands and bat thread...

[soonerfan]

Originally posted by brandda
It depends. Were his hands in the strike zone when he was hit? If so, strike. If not, hit batsman and first.

Hang on. Let's do umpire math with rules in play here. What is a strike? 1) Any pitch that crosses over the plate between the knees and half way between the batter's waist and armpits in their natural batting stance. 2) Any pitch that the batter offers to hit with the bat. Okay, here the batter "offers" at a pitched ball...strike. Now comes another rule. Any pitched ball becomes dead once it strikes a batter or his clothing. Wether or not the batter is awarded a base is just a sub-article of this rule. Now, lets look at the play and use these rules. Pitched ball is offered at by batter. Pitched ball strikes batter in the hand...ball becomes dead. Now, batter is offering as pitch crosses the plate...strike. Dead ball, runners return to base at time of pitch and batter has a strike. Does not happen often, and I had twice in a week a few years back. Sounds funny at first, but makes all kind of sense later. JOHN