Pitcher hit with line Drive

[BretMan]

I think it has been stated but softball sounds a lot different from baseball. Baseball you go until the play is over then tend the wounded. For what it is worth I like the softball way better where the ump can immediately call time if he thinks a player is injured.

For what it's worth, the high school baseball rule is pretty much identical to the high school softball and ASA rule on this point. I think that you'll find that to be the case with most amateur or youth baseball rule sets. Play is to be stopped for serious injury.

Personally...I don't think you should treat a skinned knee the same as a line drive to the head. And, like MTR said above, an umpire really needs to wait only about five seconds before calling time to get a good read on if the runners are advancing, the defense might still make a play or if everybody is just going to stop where they are. Five seconds might seem like an eternity when a player is down, but I can think of very few circumstances where waiting five seconds would have any material impact on the medical outcome of an injured player.

 

[SoftSocDad]

I would think very, very lowly of any coach that would send a runner when you have a little girl just been laid out on the ground.

This is a time where rules are irrelevant and common human decency should be in play. If my pitcher was laid out by a line drive, my first instinct is to get to the player, not a stupid game.

I saw a girl get tripped during soccer practice yesterday. If you didn't know any better, you might've thought she'd just suffered a traumatic amputation the way she was holding her leg. Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, the tears stopped and she popped up and resumed play less than a minute later.

It happens all the time.

 

[Sweet Lou]

For what it's worth, the high school baseball rule is pretty much identical to the high school softball and ASA rule on this point. I think that you'll find that to be the case with most amateur or youth baseball rule sets. Play is to be stopped for serious injury.

Personally...I don't think you should treat a skinned knee the same as a line drive to the head. And, like MTR said above, an umpire really needs to wait only about five seconds before calling time to get a good read on if the runners are advancing, the defense might still make a play or if everybody is just going to stop where they are. Five seconds might seem like an eternity when a player is down, but I can think of very few circumstances where waiting five seconds would have any material impact on the medical outcome of an injured player.

Then the rules have changed from when I was playing hardball.

But yeah I agree 5 second rule seems "reasonable".

 

[Comp]

Dont know if anyone has ever seen this video, but here is a situation where if you kill the ball immediately you would be penalizing the defense pretty severely. Ball ricochets off pitchers forehead, F3 catches ball in air and appears to possibly double the runner on 1st. Looks like umpire killed the ball on contact, but they dont show what the outcome of the play was.

Softball Line Drive Bounces Off Female Pitchers Face - YouTube

 

[Umpireernie]

Dont know if anyone has ever seen this video, but here is a situation where if you kill the ball immediately you would be penalizing the defense pretty severely. Ball ricochets off pitchers forehead, F3 catches ball in air and appears to possibly double the runner on 1st. Looks like umpire killed the ball on contact, but they dont show what the outcome of the play was.

Softball Line Drive Bounces Off Female Pitchers Face - YouTube

Ultimately stopping play on an injury is a judgement call; meaning there is no black and white "correct call". And I think that judgement insofar as calling immediate dead ball on an injury is going to be shaded by the level of ball your calling. I am going to stop play on a 12U rec league game quicker than I am a high school varsity game.

Having said that, I think I would have reacted the same way as the PU in this video; perhaps even quicker. Dead ball. That was a direct shot to the forehead. Head trauma is very serious and seconds can count. At some point you see an injury where you just don't care anymore if the offense loses out on a base or the defense loses out on an out (or 2 as in this video) you want that player to receive attention and RIGHT NOW. I think this was one such case.

More often what I see is a player go down with a twisted ankle or knee or some such. Yes she hurts but we are not talking about brain damage here. Going to kill play at first hint of stoppage of play by offense and defense but not before.

I often see coaches who, seeing a player of either side down will hold their runners to a base to hasten the end of play and allow time to be called. I think this is classy. Much like in soccer where a team, seeing a player down will intentionally kick the ball out to get a stoppage; then the other team will throw the ball in and intentionally turn it back over to "even up" the previous turnover.

 

[Umpireernie]

Now here is the opposite example of the last video.

Line Drive Hit To Pitcher - YouTube

Again I agree with the judgement of the PU in this video.. he allowed the play to continue then killed it at the first point after the offense had quit trying to advance and the defense had quit trying to make a play on the offense.

 

[MTR]

Now here is the opposite example of the last video.

Line Drive Hit To Pitcher - YouTube

Again I agree with the judgement of the PU in this video.. he allowed the play to continue then killed it at the first point after the offense had quit trying to advance and the defense had quit trying to make a play on the offense.

I agree with you on the second video even though I noticed a few things that were irrelevant to the batted ball that would drive me crazy.

And obviously, a head shot is different than anything else, though I probably wouldn't have reacted that quick in the first one. IMO, waiting a few seconds to get a clear eval of the situation isn't going to make the difference. And the defense isn't going to be too happy that you just negated what appears to be a double play.

Here is where an umpi

 

[Tex]

Anyone else notice that an illegal pitch was not called in this "Line drive hit to pitcher" video???? Four umpires are also umpiring this game and not one of them called illegal pitch.

 

[Comp]

I noticed it, just didnt say anything about it.

 

[Crabby_Bob]

Someone passes gas.