NFHS Rule Change - Bats

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by CecilOne

All of these cover not allowed in different ways. I was addressing the technical use of "illegal"; as in the batter is out, but not ejected/disqualified.

#1 is altered not "illegal".
#2 is non-approved, not "illegal"

#3 is then "illegal"; but my question was whether a bat can be "illegal" any other way. In this question, "damaged" includes defaced, painted, etc.; any non-legal change that is not "altered'.

Again, is there such a thing as illegal beyond that or do we actually have only these 3:
1 Non-approved
2 Altered
3 Damaged
?

Ahh, I understand, I think. You want to treat "illegal" as its own singular category that doesn't include altered or non-approved. I look at it the other way, where all three categories--damaged, altered and non-approved--fall under the umbrella of "illegal", with separate penalties for each.

I suppose a fourth category of "illegal" would be a bat that simply doesn't meet the rules requirements of an official bat. For example, in NFHS play, an illegal bat would include:
- a bat with plastic tape on the handle
- a bat with a grip that extends more than 15 inches from the knob
- a bat with rosin beyond the grip
- a bat with a choke-up device
- a bat with one of those electronic bat-speed sensors that I think NFHS still treats as illegal since it is not permanently fastened

So any bat that has been modified (but not altered to improve its ability through structural change) so that it is no longer in compliance with NFHS 1-5-1 or 1-5-2 is one that goes from "approved" to "illegal".

Now that I think about it, the new NFHS rule for next year treats damaged bats separate from any other illegal bat that isn't altered or non-approved. So now when a batter uses a bat that's illegal because it has slippery tape, a choke-up device, an electronic sensor, etc., it's still an out on the batter but not an ejection. But for a damaged bat, there is no out; we just remove that bat from the game with no penalty.