Foul ball out of play
 

Just curious here...

When a batter hits a foul ball that goes out of play, do you throw the new ball to the pitcher or hand it to the catcher to throw?

I have not ever heard it being taught one way or the other and I have seen it done both ways.

Personally, I usually hand the ball to the catcher since I don't want to risk my throw going into center field or bouncing to the pitcher.

Around here, it's "hit your own ball." I have the team toss a new ball to me for inspection (and still find the occasional .47 COR ball), then I'll hand it to the catcher. The last thing you want is to tweak your arm, shoulder or back, or, even worse, bean the pitcher when he averts his eyes at the last second before your throw (which is guaranteed to eventually happen)! If you hand it to the catcher and the pitcher gets beaned, it's not on you. ;)

Related to that, I never toss a bat to a player, either. At the end of an inning, if the bat is next to me at the plate when I brush it off, I'll carefully hand it to a player on the team that owns it. Same reasoning.

I hand it to the catcher unless she's chased the foul ball to the screen and is tracking down her helmet. In that case I'll toss it to the pitcher (if she isn't too far away ;) ).

Depends on what game I am calling and where I am. In college, you are pretty much expected to throw it back to the pitcher. (Not that I always do.) In HS, if I am near the catcher when it goes out of play, like over the backstop or something of that nature, then I hand the ball to her. If I am down the line, then I will turn and throw the new ball to the pitcher.

In our area we are NOT to throw it to the pitcher in college. Seems that a frustrated coach decided that the umpires were "making her pitcher work too much." Heck - I hit her glove more regularly than the catcher did! :cool:

I will usually hand it to the catcher unless shes not close........ I have a rag arm....

I hand/toss the ball to the closest defensive player.

In college ball or adult ball, I'll throw it - unless the catcher objects. Younger than that, I'll hand the ball to the catcher.

Your risk is that your thrown ball thumps F1 and you get sued.

That's OK, I've got liability insurance in all the games I work. They'll lose, and they'll have to pay my attorney's costs.

Seriously, if you're afraid of that, then you shouldn't be an umpire.

I always give the ball the the catcher. ALWAYS! In fact I would go out of my way to give the ball to the catcher. Two reasons.

1) the limp noodle I have for an arm.
2) Once when I threw the ball to the pitcher, she had a bad inning. Her coach joked that I "hexed" her. Same thing happened the next night to the same team, and then a week later. Half joking the coach asked me to give the ball back via his catcher. I did and the pitcher threw a dang near perfect game. So ever since then I give the ball to the catcher.