Late <acronym title='Hit by Pitch'>HBP</acronym> - Did I call correctly?

[treydawgmt]

I was umpiring Freshman Baseball last night. Single umpire. 5th inning pitch very inside, batter tries to get out of the way, raises his hands up and in. I'm tracking the ball, notice it make a loud thud and deflect direction. It is *very* close to either his left wrist, or the bat, which are within an inch or less of each other. I immediately come up calling "foul." The thud sounded like that of a bat, it was that loud. (He was using a wood bat.) Kid immediately is shaking his wrist, and says it hits him, and peels back his long sleeve shirt, which shows, oh about 2 perfect sets of 4 stitch marks. I call "Time," point to first, and yell towards the defensive team coach, "He's got the stitch marks, he's hit by pitch, 1st base." No one complains.

My question is could I have done anything differently? I don't think so, I just don't like going from "foul" to "HBP."

[johnnyg08]

No, I think you handled it fine.

If you want to improve on anything, maybe wait just a tad longer and watch the batter's reaction...then maybe you only would've had to make one call.

[mjr_2013]

What you did was fine... It's more important to get the call right than to stick with your original call... A foul ball and a HBP both result in time being called, so there really is no harm done.

Not to distract from the OP, but this question reminded me of a situation I had last year that I was curious about but never asked... LL Seniors game. I'm the BU in C position. Batter goes to bunt, and the pitch goes right towards his rib cage. The batter curves his body so that the pitch passes behind him... In curving himself, he never moved the bat back, so him and his bat went through the strike zone... Catcher (and then PU) appeal to me on the swing... I said no swing because he never truly offered at the pitch, he was just trying to get out of dodge... Pitcher put up a little fuss but got over it... Did I make the right call?

[yawetag]

If you were unsure at the time of the hit, call "TIME" instead of "FOUL." Wait a beat and see batter's response. Usually they'll tell you the truth (exception: Derek Jeter).

[Pops]

What you did was fine... It's more important to get the call right than to stick with your original call... A foul ball and a HBP both result in time being called, so there really is no harm done.

Not to distract from the OP, but this question reminded me of a situation I had last year that I was curious about but never asked... LL Seniors game. I'm the BU in C position. Batter goes to bunt, and the pitch goes right towards his rib cage. The batter curves his body so that the pitch passes behind him... In curving himself, he never moved the bat back, so him and his bat went through the strike zone... Catcher (and then PU) appeal to me on the swing... I said no swing because he never truly offered at the pitch, he was just trying to get out of dodge... Pitcher put up a little fuss but got over it... Did I make the right call?

If he didn't actually offer at the ball, you were correct.

[mjr_2013]

What you did was fine... It's more important to get the call right than to stick with your original call... A foul ball and a HBP both result in time being called, so there really is no harm done.

Not to distract from the OP, but this question reminded me of a situation I had last year that I was curious about but never asked... LL Seniors game. I'm the BU in C position. Batter goes to bunt, and the pitch goes right towards his rib cage. The batter curves his body so that the pitch passes behind him... In curving himself, he never moved the bat back, so him and his bat went through the strike zone... Catcher (and then PU) appeal to me on the swing... I said no swing because he never truly offered at the pitch, he was just trying to get out of dodge... Pitcher put up a little fuss but got over it... Did I make the right call?

If he didn't actually offer at the ball, you were correct.

What you did was fine... It's more important to get the call right than to stick with your original call... A foul ball and a HBP both result in time being called, so there really is no harm done.

Not to distract from the OP, but this question reminded me of a situation I had last year that I was curious about but never asked... LL Seniors game. I'm the BU in C position. Batter goes to bunt, and the pitch goes right towards his rib cage. The batter curves his body so that the pitch passes behind him... In curving himself, he never moved the bat back, so him and his bat went through the strike zone... Catcher (and then PU) appeal to me on the swing... I said no swing because he never truly offered at the pitch, he was just trying to get out of dodge... Pitcher put up a little fuss but got over it... Did I make the right call?

If he didn't actually offer at the ball, you were correct.

He didn't. He was just getting the heck outta the way.

Thanks!

[sdix00]

I was umpiring Freshman Baseball last night. Single umpire. 5th inning pitch very inside, batter tries to get out of the way, raises his hands up and in. I'm tracking the ball, notice it make a loud thud and deflect direction. It is *very* close to either his left wrist, or the bat, which are within an inch or less of each other. I immediately come up calling "foul." The thud sounded like that of a bat, it was that loud. (He was using a wood bat.) Kid immediately is shaking his wrist, and says it hits him, and peels back his long sleeve shirt, which shows, oh about 2 perfect sets of 4 stitch marks. I call "Time," point to first, and yell towards the defensive team coach, "He's got the stitch marks, he's hit by pitch, 1st base." No one complains.

My question is could I have done anything differently? I don't think so, I just don't like going from "foul" to "HBP."

There may be a timing lesson here.

If this pitch hit the hand or knob, the ball should have to travel a ways before it can be properly ruled fair or foul. Let it play out until the ball crosses a base, hits a foreign object in foul ground, comes to a stop, or is touched. This will give you enough time to gauge the batter's reaction and make one call.

Even if the ball skips off and immediately hits the fence, It is good to limit your "FOUL!" calls to those which actually require a verbal announcement. A good rule of thumb is to limit Fair/Foul calls to when you must straddle the foul line to make the decision.

In either case, the foul call may not be immediately necessary, leaving time to gather more info.

[Mike Prince]

Agree with the timing comment. Responding just to the sound can be trouble. In addition to what Stephen wrote, the ball also could end up in fair territory. I've had this happen before so to add to your confusion/processing of the situation you have everyone yelling at you because the ball is fair...