I know that its late, but I decided to throw in my two cents worth.

1. U3K rule is based on a non-legal catch of a pitched (thrown) ball.

2. Foul Tip is a batted ball.

What the catcher legally caught was a batted ball, not a pitched ball. Strike three, batter out.

WMB

If you're ruling a foul tip, batter out, how do you reconcile this:

Ball bounces, batter swings and misses, catcher "catches" it - the batter can try to run for first.

Ball bounces, batter barely hits it, catcher "catches" it - the batter cannot try for first.

The logic doesn't sit well. The batter is allowed to try for first because he failed to hit the ball? Seems backward.

I've read and reread (Dixie, Fed, OBA, MLB, ASA). I can't find any source that states that a foultip negates the right of the batter to run to first.

In all other cases, we treat a foultip exactly the same as a missed swinging strike - stealing runners can run, etc. Why, in just this one isolated case, are so many assuming that we should treat this one differently. Seems to me a foultip on a pitch that bounced before the foul should be treated exactly the same as a pitch that was simply missed.

Foultip, Strike Three. Batter can try to reach first, and must be tagged before he's called out.

ASA specifically states that when a foul tip is caught on a third strike, the batter is out.

Mcrowder,

The difference between a foul tip and a missed strike 3 is that a foul tip is a batted ball and therefore it is no longer a pitch. By rights, the batter should be out if the catcher catches a foul tip since it is a batter ball caught in flight; however the rules makers decided that this was unfair to the batter since <b>the catcher normally did not have to do anything unusual to catch the ball,</b> so instead they ruled it simply a strike if the catcher caught the ball and a foul ball if she did not, By your login, a ball that bounces and then is tipped by the batter and caught by the catcher should be a foul ball, rather than a U3K since the foul tip was not "caught".

BTW, it is the same logic as the bolded statement above that is used to call a batter out if the catcher does have to do something unusual (like jump up or make a lunge) to catch the ball, because it is considered a batted ball caught in-flight.

So ultimately it is the change in status of the ball, from a pitch to a batted ball that is the deciding factor on a foul tip vs. an U3K on the pitch that bounces.

SamC

As does everyone else!

Fair enough - brain fart. My bad. I see the rule now.