Dead ball strike- ASA
 

I'm confused. :o

2 strikes on batter. Pitch is inside the batters box, batter swings, hits her in the hands. Ball goes foul.

I ruled foul ball. No one said anything.

I can't seem to find anything that contradicts my ruling of foul ball, so I figured I'd let you umps correct me ,if needed.

ASA rules do note that "the hands are NOT part of the bat".

It's not possible to have a legally batted ball unless the ball was put into play with the bat (not the batter's hand).

You can't have a foul (or, for that matter, fair) ball when the ball was not legally batted.

Anytime a pitched ball touches a batter, it is an immediate dead ball.

Anytime the batter attempts to strike a pitch with the bat, but fails to put it into play, it is a strike.

Put 'em all together...what do you get?

The name of the topic. :)

Or, looked at another way... what is a foul ball (by definition) ... and did you have that?

Dead ball strike, strike three, batter's out.

What strikes me as odd is that you got it wrong on the field, but came here and got it right in the title of your thread. :)

Well at times I'm an odd kind of guy. :)

My spider sense went off when I called it a foul ball, I knew something wasn't quite right.

My thinking was I called it a dead ball strike, albeit a foul ball.

Bottom line I knew something wasn't quite right, now I know what, and have been educated.

It won't happen again.

At the time the ball made contact with the batter's hands, had the batter satisfied the definition of a swing?

correctable error ...... even though you ruled it foul, declare it a dead ball strike batter is out, if you need clarification ask your partner on the bases.

since it was a dead ball either way, any runners moving on the pitch (if any) would have to return anyway, the ball is dead and nothing can happen.

Of course you WILL have to explain it to the coach. and yes, he/she most likely will not agree.

He did say ... "batter swings".

Didn't we just confirm that we can not "un foul" a called foul? :eek:

No -- you just can't make a foul ball live or fair.

It is the same as in any stick and ball sport........

Joel

Not only that, but since this is an ASA thread, just what is the definition of "swing"?

Yes. I read that. But it wouldn't be the first time that a term was used without fully regard to its definition.

I asked the question because I have had batters hit by the pitch during the swing, but who had not committed to the swing. Since the ball is dead at the time of contact, any follow through or subsequent action with the bat is not relevant.

That's the only reason I was inquiring.

Well, technically, you can't have both.

If you had said you had batters hit by the pitch while checking their swing, that would be more accurate.

Separate but related to this subject, what do y'all call when the batter and the bat get hit by the ball virtually simultaneously? In other words, you hear the ball make contact with the bat, but you also see the batter react because the ball also hit her hand?

If the batter doesn't swing at the pitch, I usually give her the benefit of the doubt and send her to first base, judging that the ball hit her hand first. But if she does swing, what do you do? Do you assume the ball hit the bat first, and rule foul? Or do you call the dead ball strike?

IMHO, if you can't tell which, it hit the bat - whether swinging or not.