This is the only baseball worth watching, even though I watch the umpires when I go to a game.

Saw two things that made me think.

Batter (RH) stood in the box and took a pitch off his left shoulder and didn't even blink an eye to avoid being hit by a CHANGE UP. My grandmother could have gotten out of the way of that one and she's been dead for 15 years. I jokingly mentioned this to my wife and the seasoned veteran of a fan heard me and proceeded to tell me that in baseball there is no rule requiring the batter to try to move. I could only laugh. Batter was awarded 1B and, yes, baseball has the same exception to the award for not attempting to avoid being hit as does most softball organizations.


Second thing reminded me of the redundancy of some calls. On every foul ball down either line, the umpire would give a dead ball signal, call "foul" and then point foul.

Question is, why? If an umpire calls foul and gives a dead ball signal, why would the umpire point toward foul territory. This isn't a call that needs to be sold as there is no alternative once it occurs. I wonder what would happen if the umpire called foul and pointed fair? ;)

mike
This is the way ISF world championship games are done also .
Yes I agree with you whats the point but as you are aware when told to do it you do by the powers that be you do it .

Mike-

You are correct since you're talking about Ofiicial Baseball Rules (OBR) or FED rules on the hit by pitch, there is a clause that there must be some attempt to avoid. However, NCAA has a different spin on it. In the NCAA rules, a batter that freezes (makes no attempt to avoid nor an attempt to initiate contact with the ball) and gets hit is entitled to first base as long as the ball is inside the vertical lines of the batters box. It's the only rule org. I know of baseball or softball that has that.

-Josh

Personally I have never understood that rule. If the pitcher misses the strike zone so badly that the ball is going to hit me, why should I have to try to get out of the way? Really it just doesn't make any sense. Can anyone name me any other rule where the offended team is responsible for trying to help the offending avoid the penalty?


Now, if I do something as a hitter to cause the ball to hit me, then yes I can see saying batter stay right here and keep hitting. But if the batter does nothing to contribute to it I just don't see why they should be responsible for trying to avoiding it.

I know "that's just the rule", all I am saying is that I think the rule or the interpretaion need to be re-evaluated.

GSF-

I'm with you 100% on that one. I'm going to call it by the book right now the way the rule is written, but I don't like it. I wouldn't mind seeing that changed to the NCAA verbiage in all rule sets, both baseball and softball.

-Josh

Two things this rule allows:

The umpire to judge whether the batter deserves the base and safety.

I find it unbelieveable that people have a tendency to want to punish a player or team for not being perfect. Okay, so the pitcher was that far from the strike zone, so what? If he throws a ball four feet outside, should we penalize the pitcher by giving the batter a base on that one two? What if the pitch hits the bat? Should we not call that because it was so far from the strike zone, or maybe call the batter out for not being smart enough to get the bat out of the way? Extreme? Absolutely, but fits your argument.

Second is safety. Remember Ron Hunt? He would take all the hits below the shoulders you wanted to reach 1B safely. Do you seriously want to eliminate a rule which entices coaches to place their players in harms way for the sake of getting a base? What would you do if that was your daughter the coach just instructed to "lean into one" for the team? What would you do if it ended up sending her to the hospital? What would you do if it disfigured her for life? What would you do if she lost her life? Extreme? Maybe, but not beyond the realm of reality and just one injury is not worth a rule adjustment just because someone thinks the pitcher should be penalized for being 6-12 inches off the plate.

JMHO

[Edited by IRISHMAFIA on Jul 4th, 2005 at 10:05 AM]