A Little Rules Quiz...

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bretman cleared up another one this weekend, for me. It concerns if a player swings at a pitch and if it hits the bat or her. Still a strike if she is in the strike zone. Had some parents who were a little VOCAL and didn't like or understand the rules and wanted her awarded first base.
Bretman quote " If the ball did not hit the bat, but the batter was swinging, it's a strike. It's a strike even if the ball hit her out of the strike zone, too...because she was swinging at the pitch. "

 

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bretman cleared up another one this weekend, for me. It concerns if a player swings at a pitch and if it hits the bat or her. Still a strike if she is in the strike zone. Had some parents who were a little ticked and didn't understand the rules and wanted her rewarded first base.

Since she was swinging at the pitch, if the pitch hit her (without ever toucing the bat) it is a dead ball and a strike. It wouldn't matter if the pitch hit her in or out of the strike zone...because she was swinging at it!

Anytime a pitch hits a batter in the strike zone it is a dead ball and a strike- whether she was swinging or not.

As for the other scenario you presented to me...if the pitch first touched the bat, then hit the batter (who is still in the batter's box) it is a foul ball- no matter where the ball hit her (in the strike zone or out of it).

 

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Question, Can the umpire just ask for help when he/she realizes they blew a call?

We had an umpire call a girl on the other team out on a force at first base on a batted ball. She was clearly safe, and we all knew it. We kind of chuckled as did the coach at third base in front of our dugout as we discussed discretely to each other...

...then the 1st base umpire walked over to the coach, apologized and asked the home plate umpire for help. Mind you the coach did not ask for an appeal. Home plate umpire said he could not see from his position (or something to that affect) runner stayed as an out.

The next batter comes in, hits an infield ball that is played cleanly and thrown in time to first base...SAFE! Yells the umpire. All coaches on both sides get a kick out of this, lots of grins and head shaking...Even-Steven is what I was thinking, I looked at our coach and said, are we playing basketball with that makeup call?!! HAHA! Good times!

 

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Sure, any umpire is free to ask his partner for help anytime he wants to. Of course, the best thing is to get in the right position and make the best call you can in the first place! You can ask, but if you do something like that too many times your credibility is going to be shot.

As to whether the next call was a "make-up call" or not, I don't know. But an umpire should NEVER be making make-up calls! If you missed one, then you missed one. It happens. That shouldn't influence any future calls you're going to make. Your goal is to "get it right", not "cheat one team with a purposely bad call because I blew one for the other team".