Elbow guard discussion

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osagedr

Canadian Fastpitch Dad
Oct 20, 2016
280
28
From the catching perspective it's pretty easy to see when there are body parts in the river or crossing the plate.
That said think it puts umpires in a weird situation because when a batter does get hit by the pitch...
And the batter is all
'OUCH' about it
The umpire is the person that has to say
'NOPE' it's your own fault you leaned into it or turned your body into it.
And it makes the Umpire the bad person.

Especially because MOST EVERYONE AT THE FIELD COULDNT SEE WHAT THE BATTER DID.

It extra tough because
batters get hit by pitches both intentionally or unfortunately.
(But this is just like many of the obstruction calls made.)
*Doesnt matter intent.
What matters is the batter put themself in the wrong place!

Call it.

Here's a tip
Can always have the catcher or pitcher ask politely
'Pardon, Umpire, are batters allowed to get into the way of the pitch? Outside the box?'
The answer should Clarify the rule.

Unfortunately if the umpire doesn't call it immediately it's probably already in the past but at least a polite question pointing out an issue can create awareness.
As an ump I have made this call and have zero qualms about doing so. I've also had kids get hit by a CU without an attempt to get out of the way, they start to jog to 1B and I tell them "Get back here; that's a ball; you made no effort to avoid the pitch." The umpire is quite used to being the "bad person" and needs to be able to accept that or they are in the wrong line of work.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Sometimes it’s players hanging over the zone, sometimes it isn’t.

DD played with a lefty that had a dynamite curve ball. She was not a flame thrower but she threw pretty hard and lived on that curve. It was good enough that she threw it a lot. She also threw a rise to the same spot a lot.

So… all was good when we played good teams. She would still plunk about one per game. (Hey! That moved last time, why didn’t that one and vice-versa.)

All was NOT good when we played teams that had never seen this kind of pitching. I’m talking swinging strikes that hit batters in the ribs. Teams that didn’t have elbow guards (never needed them before) and they would get ker-thwacked in the elbow and I have little doubt that it really hurt. She had at least one kid that fractured a bone in her elbow area. There may have been two of those that we knew of.

I have a Mariucchi elbow guard in my shed. I tried to get dd to wear it in place of her evo shield, I don’t remember why. Maybe an injury. It’s bigger and more protective looking. It’s a nice piece of equipment but I couldn’t get her to wear it.
 
Last edited:

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
I keep sharing this, how the rule changed to~
batters not having to make an attempt to move out of the way on possible
hit-by-pitch to then be awarded first base
has also affected the game.

Add elbow guards
And batters stand more confidently as the article commented.
 

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