Hit by pitch

Yes, the batter has to at least twitch a little

This is umpire judgement of course. FED has been trying to emphasize this more in the last couple of years (keeping batters in the box who dont try to avoid) but its an uphill battle. Most umpires are very reluctant to keep a batter in the box, unless he deliberately sticks a body part out there to get hit.

only in NCAA (by rule) can the batter take a pitch in the box with impunity and go to First.

I am one of those umpires who is known to pretty much liberally award a HBP. The players I have kept at the plate for failure to avoid are the ones who move or dip into a pitch to draw the HBP.

We teach players to stay in there... especially on curve balls until the ball breaks, and if the ball does not break there is usually precious little time to avoid the pitch.....I have seen players jellylegged by curves and downright frozen on fast balls....that even a flinch is enough for me to rule an attempt was made to avoid contact....

As to a bouncing ball...those can be tricky since you have no way of knowing what direction the bounce will take….so avoiding it be at times difficult.

The vast majority of players do not want to be hit with the ball........

As Umpires, we know who the ones are that need to stay....the dipping elbow, the full turned back into the strike zone...or the knee extended to catch a pitch....

LonBlue is 100% correct. NCAA rule is different......

NCAA rule 8-2d A batter hit by a pitch is awarded first unless the pitch is a strike.

exception: the umpires should not award first to a batter "who intentionally gets touched by moving or rolling" into the pitch.

Also: A batter legally in the box does not have to avoid a pitch that is "clearly inside the vertical lines of the batters box... the ball is dead and the batter awarded first....NCAA feels if the batter is completely in the box and gets hit by a pitch, then it is the pitchers fault and the batter should be awarded first..

Hope this helps.

quote:

the full turned back into the strike zone...

I always thought if you were hit by a pitch that is in the strike zone it's a strike and not a HBP. Is that wrong?

yes, a turned back into the zone would not be a HBP and would be a dead ball strike.....I included that tactic in the ones who I would keep at the plate.......

What about a pitch that is swung at but then hits the batter?

quote:

Originally posted by StatManLV:
What about a pitch that is swung at but then hits the batter?

He stays also.
I'm a little less liberal on holding the batter than PIAA. It is one of the few spots I disagree with him about. I will award first on most HBP because you do try to let a ball break before you move. You do get frozen by some pitxhes. I will allow for that. I won't allow is trying to get hit as PIAA mentioned or pitches that I feel they allowed thenselves to get hit by.
Eamples:
The slow lazy curve ball that the batter watches break and follows it to his arm. He's staying.
I had one a couple of weeks ago withe RH pitcher, LH batter that watched it break to him, didn't move and let it hit him. I kept him there and then explained it to the OF coach. He gave me the," you have to wait to let it break" excuse. I explained it was a RH F1 and a LH batter, how much more was it going to break? He shook his head and walked away.

piaa, Michael, thanks for the clarifications!

I appreciate the help as well.

I am normally for letting guys get first on a HPB but in this case (and I know you are only hearing it from my point of view and haven't seen it) he had plenty of time to move or flinch.

Hopefully what I tell you next will give you an idea of how much time he had. The ball bounced and hit the batter in the ELBOW. That means the ball bounced just past halfway to the plate. I could understand if it bounced and hit him in the foot but that is how bad of a pitch it was. I just feel there was more than enough time to do something by the batter.

Then again this kid is one of the best players in our region and if he stayed more than likely got ticked off and hit a homerun so the ump may have helped me out a lot. This being said in hindsight.