OT: Baseball puzzle/trivia thing
 

This is a baseball question in the spirit of the old "name the ways to get to first base without a hit" question. This one could turn out to be a lousy question, but it's Friday so what the hell.

It came up while watching a game on TV last night. The announcer was talking about a player's hitting slump, and mentioned that it wasn't important that he was making outs, but rather where the ball was ending up when this guy bats. Someone sarcastically answered "in a fielder's glove".

Which is true, whenever someone makes an out... except in rare cases. So the question is:

Name the situations in which a play results in an out, even though the ball is not in the posession of a defensive player.

Obviously we're not looking for trick answers (catcher throws the ball in the air in celbration, ball is taken out of the game and given to the hall of fame, etc.) We're looking for cases where a player is called out even though no defensive player has the ball at that moment.

I can think of five, none of which are exceedingly obscure, and I'm sure there's more. Anyone want to take stab at it?

Fan Interference.

Bunt - foul ball for third strike.

Strike out, catcher drops the ball, but there's a man on first.

Cut it out, man. Not only are you getting each of the ones on my list, you're getting them in the order I have them written down.

Hitter passes the runner on first after hitting a home run (Tim McCarver has mentioned numerous times this happening to him)

I think that's all I can think of, though.

It would have been easier to put them all in one post, but I keep thinking of new ones as soon as I reply.

Good one Cuervo!

I think I got the easy ones.

We have:

- bunted thirs strike
- dropped third strike with first base occupied
- fan interference
- runners passing each other

I have two more.

Thanks. I would say running out of the baseline too, but odds would be *someone* would have the ball. Do they call you out if you're found to have a corked bat?

Oh I know - batting out of order.

Duh!

Infield fly rule - ball drops.

Being hit by a batted ball, either a baserunner or a batter out of the batter's box.

Is hitting the ball while stepping on home plate at the time an out?

infield fly rule. A fielder does not have to catch the ball for the out.

Yes to all that you said Cuervo.

In that case.....pine tar :)

Yeah, I had one item on the list called "baserunner interference", since there are several variations (ball hits baserunner in front of infielder, runner takes out shortstop to break up double play, etc) which should probably count as one.

I also had one for illegal equipment, which would cover corked bats as well as the infamous pine tar incident.

I can't believe I forgot the infield fly.

Not sure on homeplate... anyone confirm?

So...
- bunted third strike
- dropped third strike with first base occupied
- fan interference
- runners passing each other
- baserunner interference
- illegal equipment
- infield fly
- batted ball while on home plate/out of batter's box
- batting out of order
- batter hit by third strike

If you bunt a ball while stepping on the plate, yes it is an out.

And kwhit beat me on the infield fly rule. I need to learn to type faster

Ok. I am just going to stop responding :)

I will just second everything kwhit says :P

I believe that's also true of being out of the batter's box, yes?

Now for batting out of order, is that an out or does it just force the correct batter to be inserted back in? I think it depends on the timing of the challenge, but someone might know better.

If I remember correctly, its not an out if you hit a pitch while out of the batter box, its a strike. (unless its the third strike in which that would be an out).

I do not recall a time that I remember this happening to cause an out though, so am not 100% on whether an out can come from a third strike called this way. i do remember several players getting strikes called for this though (the last I remember being Carl Everett).

As for batting out of order, that is an out.

Probably true on the batter's box issue, which in doing some research may be the correct interpretation of the stepping on the plate call - http://www.eteamz.com/baseball/rules...?m=1,1,2,3,4,5

Never been well versed on the "booo" rule :), as it hardly ever comes up - though the Tigers did against the Angels last year. I don't think anything actually happened though, it was pretty bizzarre.

http://reds.enquirer.com/2002/08/15/..._tigers_4.html

Dola

Let me clarify.. the other team has to notice you batting out of order and tell the ump at the correct time for it to be an out.. but still it would be an out if done properly

I looked it up , and was wrong on this one.. you are out if you are outside of the box and you hit the ball.

I remember a Jays/Indians game a few years back when the Indians listed Manny Ramirez in their lineup instead of Angel Ramirez... i.e., a guy who wasn't in the lineup was playing in the game. However, I think he was just removed from the game.

Another one I remember is when a player swings for a third strike and the ball ends up hitting the batter... in that case if the batter is hit with the pitch on a ball he swings at, it is a strike.

This is somewhat exotic:

A swinging third strike on a pitch that hits the batter is a third strike. The ball does not have to be safely caught by the catcher.

Edited because it took me fifteen minutes to post because a girl called me in the middle of typing.

Which leads to the question: what is more rare, a batter being hit by a third strike, or an FOFCer getting called by a girl?

Dola--

Pitched ball strikes a player trying to steal home on a two strike count. The pitch is called strike three.

Actually, this is the dola--

If a Batter switches to the other batter's box while the Pitcher is in the ready position.

Really? Cool. I'm willing to bet that if I ask this question in a pub tonight, nobody comes up with this answer.