Do we all agree Hernandez should not have inspected the batter's hand for injury? I only ask because this situation has happened twice when I was umpiring behind the plate. Both times I did not award first to the batter because I did not see the ball hit the batter's hand, and they were both wood bat games, and I couldn't go off sound, either. Both times the offensive team's managers got themselves ejected when they went nuts over my decision.

I couldn't follow the link, but in general, I think inspecting the hand is proper in MLB

Yeah, I thought that was a little goofy. Inspecting the hand can tell you only THAT the ball hit the hand, not WHEN (specifically, not whether it hit bat then hand or hand then bat).

It hit the hand first (according to some pro umpire trainer whose name escapes me).

It's this play's version of "the tie goes to the runner." ;)

Never heard that before, but I'm ok with it. :)

The version I heard about was obscebity laced too.

On the order of "Hey stupid, it hit the batter's hand first"

See how nicely this works! I no longer have arguments on HBP. I just have babbling, burbling coaches (as you saw) that can't really argue the issue any longer.

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | CHC@BOS: Byrd is hit in the face by pitch, exits game - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

Marlon Byrd, earlier this year. Tragically it did not look like he had time for a "major bailout" - would that he did. As I recall, Clonigliaro and Thon "froze" in a similar fashion. There simply was not time to react.

On watching the video, it made me wonder if the all-white retro Red Sox uniform might have had a part in the incident. He was probably trying to pick the ball up out of an all-white hat. There are current rules that say the pitcher cannot have a white glove and there are numerous questions about jewelry, sunglasses and even eyeblack. I propose that it would be a very good idea in the future to ditch a retro-uniform that has a white hat for the safety of the batter. Just my two cents:

What was the obscebity? God Dabbity?

Crap, I thought he was using some high-falutin' school word I had never heard before, trying to show off how smart he is. I was too embarrassed to ask what obscebity meant. I didn't see the typo.;)

Really? An MLB pitcher was told he had to wear an undershirt because it was ruled that his abundant tattoos might be distracting to the batter. And a completely white hat directly in the line of the pitch wouldn't be?? C'mon. That is why they block off bleacher seats and/or have dark screen in CF, isn't it?

I'll second Ozzy's comment. Please stop making a fool of yourself.

Really? Another MLB pitcher was told he had to take a small pin of an American flag off his cap due to distraction. An all-white cap would seem to at least be worthy of further review by MLB.