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Baseball is a famous game in which two teams play against each other at the same time. In this game, both teams have nine players and they use a ball, bat, and gloves to play the game. Both teams play on a diamond shape field marked with white bases. Among these players, the batter and catcher perform significant roles for the success of their teams. Here we will see What happens if the Batter hits the Catcher with his Backswing?
What happens if the Batter hits the Catcher with his Backswing?
In baseball, players often hurt other team players intentionally or intentionally. According to the baseball rules, during his backswing when a batter happens to hits the catcher unintentionally, it will not be counted as batter interference and will be known as a strike. But if the batter is out of the batter’s box, the non-interference will not be applied. Let’s dig into the details that what happens if the batter hits the catcher with his backswing.
The distinction between backswing and follow through
The backswing is the movement of the batter when he moves his arms from front to backward. The batter does a backswing before striking the ball with pressure. While on the other hand, the follow-through movement is different from the backswing, which is the ongoing movement of the batter after striking the ball. In other words, it is also called the completion movement after striking or missing the ball. Both these terms are stated by the rules of NFHS and NCAA.
Follow-through interference, high school rules
According to the high school (NFHS) rules, if the catcher does not interfere in the defensive game of the batter, but the batter hits him during the follow-through movement it will be called interference. The issue of follow-through interference was highlighted during the 2017 MLB post-season play. The MLB used the term for this as backswing interference.
The umpire gives a call in the situation when the batter hits the catcher’s mitt or the glove and allows a runner to advance. When the batter contacts through his backswing and hit the glove rather than the body of the catcher, it will be called a call of interference. In this situation, the ball is called dead and the runners are demonstrated to return to their base. Therefore, the empire will not call out anyone, it will be a reset only and the players will restart the game immediately.
Unintentional interference during the backswing
The empire never will call out the batter during the backswing hit to the catcher because it is unintentional interference and nobody will face the penalty. But interference will be called out in the situation when the batter interferes with the catchers intentionally. Moreover, the empire will call the batter out when he will not leave the batter’s box for the runner and he will not step out intentionally or unintentionally.
As in baseball, it does not consider good when the hitters are called for unintentional interference. If the player is not scoring good, and the team depends on the hitter for better performance and for winning, to be called out will seems unfair to both the manager and the team. In this way, the team will lose an out and the situation for the hitter’s team will be worse.
NFHS Rules for Backswing Interference
According to rule 6.03, if a batter hits the catcher with any type of his movement, it will be considered illegal and the batter will be out for this action. The batters can interfere by stepping out from the box to restrict the catcher to the field or throw at home plate. However, NFHS stated the backswing interference differently. According to this, if a batter hits the catcher during his backswing before hitting the ball, it would be a strike only, while the empire will not consider it interference. The empire will stop the play and make sure that the catcher is not injured. After confirmation from the catcher side that everything is fine and he feels comfortable, the empire gives the sign to continue the game. The reason behind this is the batter’s unintentional interference before hitting the ball. Therefore, there is no penalty for the backswing interference because the empire considers it unintentional. However, the ball is considered dead and runners go back to their place without making any runs. Moreover, if the batter obstructs play on the runner, he will be out. Otherwise, it will be considered a dead ball and the runner will return without any score.
Conclusion
Baseball is one of the ancient games that people like to watch and play. It has some fixed rules related to interference and call time. Similarly, any type of batter or catcher interference that creates hindrance is prohibited and there are some penalties for this interference. However, if a batter hits the catcher through his backswing, before hitting the ball, the empire will not call it interference. Rather it would be a dead ball in which the runners will return. Moreover, after the backswing hitting to the catcher’s body or head, the empire ensures that the catcher is fine and not injured in any way. When the catcher confirms that he is fine, the empire continues the play. This backswing interference will not be known as the batter’s interference because the batter hits the catcher unintentionally. In addition, if the batter’s feet remain not in the batter’s box during this swing, it will be stated as the batter’s interference though. In short, when the batter hit the catcher with his backswing but missed the ball without any harm to the catcher, it will be known as a strike with no interference.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How to define the batter’s interference on the backswing?
NFHS defines batter interference during backswing when a batter hits the catcher’s head, body or mitt during the backswing, before hitting the ball.
- What happens when you step on home plate while batting?
When the batter steps out from his batting box, he will be called out because he must have to keep his feet inside the box.
