third strike swing

If it is simply an unintentional hit by the backswing it is nothing. 8-4-1a

Michael,

I am in agreement with your call on this.

Its been slow around here, so of course I went to the 2005 BRD to look this up and it does agree with us according to FED rule 8-4-1.

What else I found is why Im posting. I know this extra piece would fall under "HTBT", but maybe we can get some discussion out of it....

The BRD has an exception and an official interpretation from Brad Rumble (former FED rules interpreter).

Here it is.

"if the batter as he "unwinds" from his swing hinders the catcher, that would constitute interference"

Carl's note states "These two rulings are not contradictory. If the batter inside the box hinders the catcher, interference is the call. If he is outside the box the interference must be deliberate before it is penalized."

Now, this is where the real world and the book world collide and of course we would "have to be there" to decide if the back swing is to be considered "unwinds"......

I would not consider a back swing as "unwinds"...I see "unwinds" as the return of the bat forward from its farthermost point of the swing.....

your thoughts???

I could see unwinds as two things. One would be as you say, comes back forward after his swing. The other is letting the bat go as part of his swing as some do. If it is a normal swing I wouldn't have anything but some guys do some unusual things sometimes and that could cause an interference call.
The other side of the coin is it is different in OBR and NCAA. There they subscribe to the weak interference ruling.