Hands part of the bat, page 5...

[JEL]

No, hands are NOT part of the bat, but I had an interesting play happen this weekend, want to see how others would handle this one.

I was really kinda showed up by a ten year old boy. Well maybe not really, but he did show he had good rules knowledge. This was baseball, but would also be the same if it were softball so I would rather get the input here, (it seems to be more logical most times).

Had a 2-2 count, batter swings and ball rolls to 1B who completes the out. The "thump" of the swing sounded funny, but I couldn't tell if the hands were hit at all, or if hands were hit, or bat was hit then hands. It really sounded as if it were hit off of the hanlde wrap, and although I saw it hit the bat I couldn't visually tell if it got the hands either. I allowed the play to finish, BU rang up the out (3rd out) and we switched sides. As the pitcher comes to the mound he say's to his coach "the ball hit the bat then him, that's supposed to be a foul ball". The coach (thankfully) didn't ask me about it. After the play, I was fairly sure the ball had hit the batters hands sometime during the swing, so I could have had a 3rd strike, or a foul ball, but not a ball put in play.

The question is this: In an instance where you can not be certain of when (or even if) the ball hit the hands on the swing do you allow the play to finish and take the outcome? What would you do if you were not certain (until well after the play, and this would still be an assumption) that the ball actually hit the batters hands at some point?

[mick]

Originally posted by JEL
No, hands are NOT part of the bat, but I had an interesting play happen this weekend, want to see how others would handle this one.

I was really kinda showed up by a ten year old boy. Well maybe not really, but he did show he had good rules knowledge. This was baseball, but would also be the same if it were softball so I would rather get the input here, (it seems to be more logical most times).

Had a 2-2 count, batter swings and ball rolls to 1B who completes the out. The "thump" of the swing sounded funny, but I couldn't tell if the hands were hit at all, or if hands were hit, or bat was hit then hands. It really sounded as if it were hit off of the hanlde wrap, and although I saw it hit the bat I couldn't visually tell if it got the hands either. I allowed the play to finish, BU rang up the out (3rd out) and we switched sides. As the pitcher comes to the mound he say's to his coach "the ball hit the bat then him, that's supposed to be a foul ball". The coach (thankfully) didn't ask me about it. After the play, I was fairly sure the ball had hit the batters hands sometime during the swing, so I could have had a 3rd strike, or a foul ball, but not a ball put in play.

The question is this: In an instance where you can not be certain of when (or even if) the ball hit the hands on the swing do you allow the play to finish and take the outcome? What would you do if you were not certain (until well after the play, and this would still be an assumption) that the ball actually hit the batters hands at some point?

JEL,
You made your decision at the time based on what you saw.
Nobody said a word at the time, not the batter, not your partner, not the coach.
Good call!
On to next game.
mick

[Dakota]

Originally posted by JEL
The question is this: In an instance where you can not be certain of when (or even if) the ball hit the hands on the swing do you allow the play to finish and take the outcome? What would you do if you were not certain (until well after the play, and this would still be an assumption) that the ball actually hit the batters hands at some point?

I make a distinction between "when" and "if."

If you cannot be certain that the hands were hit, the play stands as a batted ball.

If you know the hands were hit, but cannot be certain when, it is a foul ball.

JMO.