NFHS "ball four" mechanic

[charliej47]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

The problem with that (old and never revised) instruction is that the game has changed with rules related to HBP that require different judgment. Used to be the only judgments were 1) hit or not, and 2) sufficient attempt to avoid or not?

Now we have to judge if the ball was completely in the batters box (where no attempt to avoid is necessary), or only partially in the batters box (where failure to attempt to avoid still applies). So batters and coaches can legitimately not know if they are awarded first base or not.

Sure, the smarter ones hop up and go to first and make you call them back. But this is an NFHS thread, and there generally aren't all that many smarter players.

I believe the better mechanic (on HBP only) is to point and award first base when appropriate, or immediately after declaring dead ball state "stay here" when not awarding first base; that makes it clear that you are making an affirmative judgment and what your judgment is, without leaving it appear like the coach needs to come out and prompt you to consider the alternate possibility.

It just isn't in the NFHS manual (has that been updated in decades??), like the NCAA updated when their rule changed. Just my opinion, no correction as to the manual direction.

At one of the state (Ohio) meetings, we were told to use this mechanic when the batter is to stay.