Hit by Pitch???

[Umpire in Chief]

A friend of mine told me this happened to him today...

Catcher catches the ball with his glove on the batter's back foot. Had the catcher not caught it it would have hit the batter, but it didn't. Coach goes off the deep end claiming that that still counts as being hit.

Really???

[AJtheUMP]

Did the batter try to avoid? If not its null anyway.

[MPLSMatt]

Wow, that sounds really crazy to me. We are really supposed to anticipate whether the ball was going to hit the batter? Unless I'm totally in the dark (and maybe I am), there is no way I'm giving a HBP on this. This sounds on par with "it's not a HBP if it bounces first" in terms of mythology.

[grayhawk]

2.0 TOUCH. To touch a player or umpire is to touch any part of his body, his clothing or his equipment.

"Coach, by rule, your batter was not touched by the ball."