High pitched ball hits bats in effort of batter to protect himself of being hit in the face

[piranhaost]

Let me draw up the situation. Batter is in the box and has a 1 ball, 1 strike count. Next pitch is blazing fastball right at the batters head. In an attempt to protect himself of being hit in the head the batter pulls the bat in front of his face where the ball hits the bat and goes foul. What's the call? I thought that in an attempt to protect yourself from being hit the HBP rule applies eventhough the ball hit the bat and the runner get awarded first base. But in this game the umpire called it a swing and batter had a 2 strike count. WHat's the correct call

[Vegas_Ump]

It hit the bat.  For better or worse, it was a bona fide offer.  Foul ball!.

Mike

Las Vegas

[Jimurray]

13 minutes ago, Vegas_Ump said:

It hit the bat.  For better or worse, it was a bona fide offer.  Foul ball!.

Mike

Las Vegas

Why call it a swing or bona fide offer? It's a batted ball, plain and simple. It can go fair and be live or foul and be dead. For our OP, that pitch did not touch the batter so the HBP rule doesn't apply.

[Velho]

50 minutes ago, Jimurray said:

Why call it a swing or bona fide offer? It's a batted ball, plain and simple.

👆You don't have to something that would otherwise be judged a swing to have a batted ball.

[The Man in Blue]

The definition of a swing is an attempt to strike at the ball.  There is nothing about the reason to hit the ball with the bat.

[maven]

It's neither a swing nor a HBP. Not a swing, because the batter wasn't offering at the pitch. Not a HBP, because the pitch did not strike the batter's person.

But it is, as indicated above, a batted ball, and thus a foul ball. The batter was lucky: some of these end up fair, and they're easy outs for the offense.

9 hours ago, piranhaost said:

I thought that in an attempt to protect yourself from being hit the HBP rule applies eventhough the ball hit the bat and the runner get awarded first base.

I've never heard of this, and AFAIK this is not a rule in any code for baseball.

[Aging_Arbiter]

One I had to call this year, that KIND OF plays along these lines.

 

Batter Ducked high inside pitch......but didn't pull his bat down.  Ball hit bat and rolled fair.  I pointed.  Everyone looked confused until they see me just standing there pointing fair, and my partner moved from A to fair territory to set up for a call.  Finally, one coach yelled "RUN" and another yelled "THROW IT TO FIRST".  

He didn't attempt to hit the ball, nonetheless, it was a fair "batted" ball.

 

[Tborze]

@Aging_Arbiter may want to edit. 
 

[Thunderheads]

1 hour ago, Tborze said:

@Aging_Arbiter may want to edit. 
 

I did it for him  

[JSam21]

Pitched ball touches bat = batted ball, end of story.

 

[Velho]

2 hours ago, JSam21 said:

Pitched ball touches bat = batted ball, end of story.

You sure? 😉

What if it hits something else first?

[JSam21]

5 minutes ago, Velho said:

You sure? 😉

What if it hits something else first?

Such as?

 

[Jimurray]

12 minutes ago, Velho said:

You sure? 😉

What if it hits something else first?

Won't it no longer be a pitch if it hit the batter? But we do have a problem in all codes with when a pitch ends where a bobbled pitch somehow hits the bat or is contacted on the backswing. 

[Velho]

1 hour ago, JSam21 said:

Such as?

 

1 hour ago, Jimurray said:

Won't it no longer be a pitch if it hit the batter?

I expected someone to make that point, LOL.

I think umpires would be the only one to follow the train of thought that a ball hitting the batter and then split second later hitting the bat isn't a "pitched ball hitting the bat".

The lay person will not make that distinction and, at best, give us an eye-roll.

[JSam21]

3 hours ago, Jimurray said:

Won't it no longer be a pitch if it hit the batter? But we do have a problem in all codes with when a pitch ends where a bobbled pitch somehow hits the bat or is contacted on the backswing. 

No we don't. OBR 6.03(a)(3) and (4) Comment, NCAA 6-2-d

 

[Jimurray]

37 minutes ago, JSam21 said:

No we don't. OBR 6.03(a)(3) and (4) Comment, NCAA 6-2-d

 

That takes care of backswing in OBR and NCAA. While we don't have a definition of when a pitch ends in those codes and a loophole in the FED code I think I'll leave that problem of a bobbled pitch hitting a bat to that time when it might occur which I've never seen. If it ever did happen I think everyone would think it would be a live thrown ball and treat it as such.