The hit-by-pitch glitch that foiled two batters on the same day

SB Nation

If you want more Weird Rules RIGHT THIS INSTANT, then I've got good news for you: we've done a handful of episodes over at https://www.patreon.com/secretbase. They don't have all the glitzy animations (those are special for YouTube) but they are longer, so, that usually means more weirdness.  As for this episode, it has to easily be the worst case scenario for a batter, right? If you ranked the options, best case scenario would be getting a hit, then at the bottom would be striking out. But thankfully, MLB considered a situation even worse than your regular ass strikeout. What if in addition to the mental anguish a strikeout inflicts, you were afflicted with physical pain as well? That would suck!  So, here we go.

Transcript

00:00All I'm saying is, that's not a streak I would want to go on.

00:04You know what I'm saying?

00:06That sure was a weird rule.

00:08And let's cut it there.

00:09That's good.

00:10Okay.

00:10We have one more, right?

00:11Yeah.

00:11Okay, I'm just going to take a quick break.

00:14I will be right back.

00:16All right.

00:17Hey, man.

00:32Sorry.

00:32Hey.

00:34Good to see you.

00:35Hey, yeah, same.

00:36Good to see you.

00:40Well, Ryan.

00:43You're welcome.

00:43Have you ever done a thing and been penalized for it?

00:48Yes.

00:48And after the...

00:49Well, yes.

00:50Sorry.

00:50But after that, realized if I had just done nothing, I would have been fine.

00:55Or perhaps even succeeded.

00:57Penalized by some other person or body or penalized by my own brain from some sense of shame and guilt?

01:06I guess both.

01:07Then yes.

01:08Tell me about it.

01:09Oh, you want to know about all the things my brain reminds myself of that I didn't really need

01:13to do, but I did.

01:14And therefore, at 3 a.m., it's like, hey, do you remember that time where you were dating?

01:21And why would I say her whole name?

01:25You being from Texas and her family being from New Jersey, that was your first real experience

01:31meeting people who practiced the cheek-to-cheek kiss as a greeting or a farewell?

01:36The European method.

01:37The European method?

01:39Yeah.

01:39That wasn't a thing we did in Houston all that much.

01:42To be fair, it's also not a thing we really do in New Jersey, either.

01:45Okay.

01:46And I fully kissed her aunt's ear.

01:49Ooh, sexy.

01:50Oh.

01:51I legitimately think about this, like, three times a week, probably.

01:54Oh, wow.

01:55Yeah.

01:55Yeah, that's definitely way worse than what we're talking about today.

01:58Yeah.

01:58What we were talking about today are two baseball players and a rule.

02:03When I say it, it's going to sound like, oh, yes, of course.

02:06But I had never really considered it before, and so it was kind of a surprise the first

02:11time I heard it.

02:12Okay.

02:12Normally in baseball, what happens when you get hit by a pitch?

02:15You go to first.

02:16You are entitled to first base.

02:17You kind of whine about it.

02:18You look at the pitcher.

02:19Yeah, maybe you get into a little bit of a fight, but ultimately you take first base.

02:22You say, hold me back.

02:23Sure, you can do that.

02:24You can, in fact, be hit by a pitch and not take first base.

02:31If you're being hit by a pitch, generally you can see it coming.

02:35So I never really thought of the idea of swinging at a pitch that ultimately hits you,

02:39but I went to the rule book, of course.

02:42Of course.

02:42Like we do in Weird Rules.

02:43Yeah.

02:43Because I was like, it must be written down somewhere in the rules in terms of what

02:49actually constitutes a strike and where the hierarchy is of which supersedes the other

02:54the hit by pitch or the strike.

02:56Sure.

02:56And I had to go all the way to the very back of the book.

03:00Keep it that far back?

03:01Yeah.

03:02Into the glossary.

03:03It's not even in the rules.

03:05It's in the definition of what a strike is.

03:07Okay.

03:08So there's not really like a number to point people to, to look it up in the rule book.

03:12But if you go to the glossary, it just says a strike is a legal pitch when so-called by

03:17the umpire, which, and then A, B, C, D, E, all these different scenarios.

03:21E is touches the batter as he strikes at it, is a strike.

03:27So they did account for what happens if you are hit by a pitch that you swing at, it is

03:32still a strike.

03:33While you were in here hanging out doing God knows what, on May 11th, 2022, this actually

03:38happened twice in one day.

03:40Both two catchers who were batting, which I think is-

03:43Different games.

03:44Two completely different games.

03:45And there's clips of both of them.

03:46Would you like to see it?

03:47Yeah, I've got a lot of thoughts on them letting catchers bat in the first place, but

03:50I'm down to see the clips.

03:51We can get to that.

03:52Okay.

03:53Francisco Mejia, who is a catcher for the Rays, or was a catcher for the Rays at the time.

03:57Here's a nice slow motion replay of what we're talking about.

04:01So a nice little breaking ball on the inside.

04:03He swings.

04:04I really like the fate.

04:05It's almost like he's mid-swing and he kind of knows like, oh, not only should I not swing

04:09at that, but that's coming right for me.

04:11Right.

04:11That's going to hit.

04:12So this was not just a strike, but a strikeout.

04:15This was strike three.

04:16Oh, that's worst case scenario.

04:18So this ended his at bat worst case scenario.

04:19Across the board.

04:20Worst case scenario.

04:21Right into like the pointed part of your hip.

04:24Right up by the top of the pocket.

04:26Yeah, that is almost the bone.

04:27That sucks.

04:28That sucks, right?

04:29He swings.

04:30He can feel he didn't connect and it's like, man, this is going to hurt.

04:34This is going to suck.

04:35That's Ralph Wiggum.

04:36It's a little Ralph Wiggum.

04:38The moment his heart breaks, you can pause it and you can see, oh, what have I done?

04:44Earlier that day, it was pointed out.

04:46It happened in another game.

04:47This is Jorge Alfaro, also a catcher, also a bat, also strike three, swinging and missing

04:53on a pitch that ultimately hits him.

04:55Oh, okay.

04:56And that one's almost a little, you can't quite see his face in this shot, but similar deal.

05:01I mean, opposite side of the plate, but it's sort of this like really low inside ball that

05:05kind of breaks at the last second right into his thigh.

05:08I bet that left a good mark.

05:11Oh, that hurt for sure.

05:12What I realize is if a pitch is inside enough to hit a batter.

05:16You can see it coming.

05:17Somewhere right after release that it's going to hit you.

05:20You're not generally swinging at anything that's even really close enough to hit you.

05:23You want to take the ball.

05:24Right.

05:25Unless pitcher puts a lot of stink on it.

05:28They put a ton of stink on it, and you get fooled, and you end up taking a swing at a

05:33pitch that not only you should not have swung at, but is now going to hurt like a bitch.

05:38Right.

05:39It's going to sting both your physical carapace, your body, and your soul.

05:45It'll dislodge your ego.

05:47Yeah, bruise your ego and bruise your thigh a little bit at the same time.

05:50Now, so my brain immediately jumped to considering the batters in this situation,

05:54which I think is kind of fair since they are the person getting hit by an object.

05:59Sure.

06:00Worst case scenario for them.

06:01We aligned on this.

06:02Yes.

06:03Best case scenario for a pitcher.

06:05You pitched so good that you fooled another professional athlete.

06:11You strike them out, so you did your job.

06:13Right.

06:14And you also, like, in an allowable way, got to hit someone else with a baseball.

06:20You are not penalized.

06:21Not condoning.

06:23Well, but if you're a pitcher in these circumstances and you can beat somebody with a baseball, cool.

06:27Yes.

06:28I almost wonder if you could build a strategy around this.

06:30I wonder if you just focus on a late breaking ball and then just start beaming guys and hoping

06:37that they swing at it.

06:38And it looks like they're bringing in filthy Pete from the bullpen.

06:42You know what to expect when filthy Pete's at the mound.

06:46Here's the tough thing about the strategy.

06:47It's less about how do we get a competitive advantage.

06:50And I think the strategy would need to involve there being somebody on the opposing team

06:55that you just want to put in their place.

06:57It's not because we think this is going to improve our chances to win, but it's like,

07:01we really think we need to just knock him down a peg or two.

07:04So let's bring in filthy Pete.

07:06Uh-huh.

07:07Let's let him throw inside, but some slider stink to get this guy to swing.

07:12You run the risk of if you do it too many times, though, and then filthy Pete shows up.

07:17Yes.

07:17You're going to know there's two strikes in the count.

07:20I'm done swinging.

07:21That's true.

07:23Another thing that I was thinking is what if you painted the ball, right?

07:27Okay.

07:28You paint the ball in a way that makes it look like it is some sort of creature or ghost

07:33that's coming at you.

07:34Okay.

07:35Like, what happens normally when you throw inside?

07:37They either, you know, make an effort to get away from the ball or they get hit.

07:42You've got to get your batter to swing at a ball.

07:44So you either do that strategy of disguising your pitch up top and making it seem like it's

07:49going to go in the strike zone and then having to cut inside.

07:52Or you disguise your ball and make it look like a creature or ghost so that when it starts

07:56coming at them, your instinct is to take your bat and swing at it like you're going to hit

08:01it.

08:01That's a strike no matter what.

08:02Your goal is to get the batter to swing at anything.

08:05So make it look like a bat or like a fireball skull from Doom.

08:09Those guys are just going to start swinging at it because they're spooked.

08:12But you don't want them totally spooked.

08:14You don't want them to leave the plate.

08:16You want to present them with something with enough confidence that they're going to stand their

08:19ground and they're going to try to play the hero.

08:22So I will paint that fucker like a bumblebee.

08:24Oh, yeah.

08:25So, okay.

08:25Because then also as the pitcher, you can put a little theatrics into it and make it known

08:31that like you don't want to balk, you don't want to do anything.

08:33So I think you do need to communicate a little bit.

08:35You're just like swapping in.

08:36Yeah.

08:36It's a bee.

08:37There's a bee.

08:38It's a bee.

08:39It's fine.

08:40It's over here.

08:40It's not coming for you.

08:42You want to make sure that they feel like it's not.

08:44Get them to lull them into a false sense of security.

08:47And then as you're ready to go, you say, oh, it's behind me now.

08:50And so now can we please address, they are called catchers.

08:57They're not a batter.

08:58Those are different things.

08:59Those are different actions.

09:00Why do we let catchers bat?

09:03What's your problem?

09:04I just need a problem, I guess.

09:06Oh, my God.

Category

Transcript

Recommended