Hit By Pitch Ruling

[mg0403]

Forgive my sloppy highlighting ... here is USSSA since that was the OP's code.

View attachment 28522

Thanks for sharing the USSSA rule - In the OP I didn't specify that the ball was not in the strike zone - batter was in box and pitch was clearly a ball. In what you highlighted it says "If the batter intentionally moves to get hit by pitch" - but that speaks to their intention to gain the base - they were not moving to get hit by the pitch - they were moving to avoid getting hit in the head by the pitch. Is that not a fair distinction in this case that should result in awarding the base vs. a dead ball ball call, or definitley not a dead ball strike call?

 

[marriard]

Thanks for sharing the USSSA rule - In the OP I didn't specify that the ball was not in the strike zone - batter was in box and pitch was clearly a ball. In what you highlighted it says "If the batter intentionally moves to get hit by pitch" - but that speaks to their intention to gain the base - they were not moving to get hit by the pitch - they were moving to avoid getting hit in the head by the pitch. Is that not a fair distinction in this case that should result in awarding the base vs. a dead ball ball call, or definitley not a dead ball strike call?

Nope - you moved your hand with the intent of the ball hitting it. Not a hit by pitch.

You can move defensively to avoid getting hit - but if you still get hit is a HPB.

But if you move in a way to get hit, then nope. Putting your hand up to intentionally block the ball is moving to get hit in the hand & falls into that category - whether it was going to hit you somewhere else or not.

You can scream common sense etc, but the rules are written to handle as much common actions as possible and that leads to situations that are rare and that you DON'T want to write a specific rule for. Also they have been moving to a lot of Black & White rules - especially in NCAA - where judgement of what could of happened is taken out of the rule (see obstruction in college for example) and asking an umpire to judge whether the ball was going to hit the batter anyway would fit in this category (even when if is obvious on one play it could not be in another).

 

[CoachJD]

You can move defensively to avoid getting hit - but if you still get hit is a HPB.

But if you move in a way to get hit, then nope. Putting your hand up to intentionally block the ball is moving to get hit in the hand & falls into that category - whether it was going to hit you somewhere else or not.

This is an important distinction. The instinct to put up a hand is literally trying to make sure your hand gets hit instead of some other body part.

Other defensive moves might be failures to elude the ball, but the entire act is meant to not get hit (or, at least, to minimize the damage of an inevitable HBP).

 

[The Man In Blue]

It matters in a game, as for this discussion *shrug*

The rule set is most definitely significant since different rule sets have different rules and requirements. If you can't see that and don't care to listen to that, I don't know what to say, coach.

Edit: Removing a bunch of this and moving to a PM.