Hit by pitch

[jicecone]

IMO there are three types of pitches that you need to deal with in the games most of us on this board do, as Mbyron has also implied:

1. (98% of the time) Bad or errant pitching. Unless that batter does something to obiviously get hit by the pitch, chances are real good I'm sending him to first. To expect the batter to make exhorbant moves to not be hit by a pitch in the batter box below the shoulders, well I'm going with the batter. Anything above that, well you know self-preservation is kicking in. The rule book allows me to make the call and this is the criteria I have established to be in compliance. By the same token if it is obvious your trying to get hit with the pitch over the plate, your staying to finish your at bat.

2. (1%) Send a message pitch. I have umpired games were some players just needed a correction factor applied to their method of approach to the game, attitude and overall sportsmanship. It was artfully handled by the pitcher and always below the shoulders, and very effective in getting the message across of how the game should be played. The batter was sent to first however the players handled a situation that was much more effective than I could of done.

3.(1%) The intentional Bean Ball. If you do enough baseball you have a pretty good idea when you should be looking for this. You may have already given warnings and you should be jumping all over this with an ejection. It is obvious what has to be done here. There is sometimes a fine line between No. 2 & 3 but, with experience you should have no problem discerning this.