Dropped bat

[umpstu]

Every time a pitch goes closely behind of over the batter's head you hear to drop the bat.  Does that mean if the ball hits the bat that it is a ball?  Or is it fair/foul depending on where the ball went after it hit the bat?  This is driving me crazy.

[Velho]

5 minutes ago, umpstu said:

Or is it fair/foul depending on where the ball went after it hit the bat?

That is exactly it. And I've seen it go fair more than once.

[Senor Azul]

For high school ball you can use rule 7-2-3—

2020 FED rule 7-2 ART. 3 . . . A foul ball or a fair hit (which may be a bunt) occurs when a pitch is touched by the bat of the batter who is in his box (2-5-1, 2-16- 1, 2).

[ArchAngel72]

Seen it happen in LL all the time Pitcher throws behind a kids head they duck forward and plunk it hits the bat and squirts fwd onto the field..

 

The hilarity of the situation ensues.. Usually a bad throw from the catcher and the runner makes it to 3rd..

 

[BLWizzRanger]

Went on a thinking exercise with the above quotations and I answered my own question, I think.  Focused on whether the bat was in hand or not - which isn't mentioned in the quotations.

The ruling is the same if the batter throws the bat at a pitched ball and contacts it too. So whether the bat is in hand or not, on a pitched ball that touches the bat, the ball is live and can be fair or foul (or dead if it comes off the bat and hits the batter).

I was trying to think of a continuation of the OP where the bat wasn't swung or thrown and all I could think of is at the younger ages where a panicked batter flat out drops the bat in the box and the pitched ball hits the bat.  This was the same at throwing a bat at a pitched ball.