NFHS Baseball Test Part 1

[MikeStrybel]

Originally Posted by UmpJM (nee CoachJM)

Welpe,

Give that man a cigar!

That was, in fact, the "test correct" answer.

On the field, of course, one would go with "C".

JM

John,
I had this question brought up at one of my clinics and again by ODJ. The correct answer is D. It is clearly stated as such in the 2011 Preseason Guide sent along with the Rule and Case books.

On page 5 of that supplement:

The umpire's decision on a checked swing should be based entirely on his judgement as to whether or not the batter struck at the pitch.

Here are two helpful guidelines that may be helpful in determining if the batter swung: the barrel of the bat breaks the plane of the batter's front hip or the barrel of the bat breaks the plane of the front edge of the plate provided the batter is positioned in the center of the batter's box.

On the field, you would use both criteria. For less experienced umpires this will be easier to entertain. Some of us grew up with the 'front edge/broke his wrists' rules of thumb.

The NFHS wants us to read everything and they took that question straight from there. Illinois uses questions from the Michigan test currently but next year we will utilize a unique one.

The NCAA does the same thing. A number of questions came directly from the NCAA 2011 Baseball supplement.

I hope this helps clarify things.

Mike

[Welpe]

Mike, the funny thing is that the first sentence you quote from the supplement seems to match answer C perfectly.

Incidently, I had heard the "bat crosses over the plate" as criteria by the casual fan or coach but once I started umpiring, I was trained to NOT use those things as criteria but to simply judge, did the batter offer or did he not?

Admittedly, I did not realize the Fed had weakly codified the myth.