Mr.

[Guest Jay Holden]

The batter swings and hits the ball into fair territory in front of the plate. He drops his bat (in fair territory) and heads for first. The back spin on the ball causes the ball to roll back and bounce off the bat...fair or dead ball?

[pnewton]

In this instance (ball hit bat rather than bat hit ball) the ball is either fair or foul depending on where it is either touched or comes to rest, per usual.

[maven]

In this instance (ball hit bat rather than bat hit ball) the ball is either fair or foul depending on where it is either touched or comes to rest, per usual.

Agree: "fair or dead"? Don't know yet: ball hits bat is legal, so it's not dead. But if it's still moving then its fair/foul status is yet to be determined.

[Stk004]

On 4/15/2017 at 8:08 AM, maven said:

 

Agree: "fair or dead"? Don't know yet: ball hits bat is legal, so it's not dead. But if it's still moving then its fair/foul status is yet to be determined.

 

Is the bat not considered a foreign object, which would make the ball fair on contact?

[Rich Ives]

26 minutes ago, Stk004 said:

Is the bat not considered a foreign object, which would make the ball fair on contact?

There are no foreign objects in fair territory. Play the bounce.

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, Stk004 said:

Is the bat not considered a foreign object, which would make the ball fair on contact?

When the ball hits an object in fair territory, it's nothing, yet.  The ball becomes fair or foul based on what happens next (touches a fielder, comes to rest, etc.) just as if it had not hit the object.

 

When the ball hits an object in foul territory, the ball becomes foul.