yakalskovich | Stupid questions about baseball

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Stupid questions about baseball

What does a baseball player at bat do with the actual bat when he's hit the ball and starts running?

nazgulwears said 'drop it', but I can't quite imagine it. Where would he leave it? How does he recover it? Is it his own bat, or does everybody bat with the same bat?

There's a virtual baseball game in Milliways that'll start pre-threading this weekend; so far I have read up on the rules etc., but that one part still makes me wonder.

Also, can somebody recommend me a YouTube link to, let's say, ten minutes of a baseball game that's really typical and has some interesting if standard things happening in it? There is lots of baseball on YouTube, but I can't really tell what would be educational to watch.

Thanks in advance!

ETA: Which of these four icons should I use as baseball icons for Teja, in the game, and for context? I just made them myself from Corbis stock; but if there's a more iconic icon, or somebody running with a bat (see thread with

i_open_doors within), I'd use that just as readily.-

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Yes, they drop it, or more likely, fling it behind them.

I suspect each player has his own bat, and as I recall, there is a "bat boy" (or "bat girl") whose job t is to gather the bat and return it to the dugout.

Ahhhh thank you! Yes, if there's somebody to collect the bat, then there won't be discarded bats in the way later, too. 'Fling it behind them' also makes sense. After all, there's that fence somewhere behind them, so that's the furthest it can go.-

Forgot to mention in my little spiel: it has to be a controlled toss. Throwing or flinging it anywhere is not permitted, because it can hit someone.

Which is both not nice, and can unfairly aid your team if you hit the right person.

Okay, so no shenanigans with that one! Thanks!

I'm sure it's just a difference of opinion on the meaning of the term "fling," which I'd describe as less violent than "throw." :)

At any rate, they are more than dropped, since dropping it would leave it in the way. They have to angle it with some small force behind them, but obviously not so hard as to knock the ump out, much as they might wish to do so. "Tossed," perhaps, is a good word.

Well. Except in certain cases. Where one has to be sure not to throw it through that cage as though it were just melting butter.

>.>

I guess that's where the superpowers (use of which: forbidden!) of some of the Milli!pups in that game come in...

There are generally quite a few bats to choose from. The bats have to be officially checked, so having personal bats is likely out. They can have a favorite out of the team supply, but it's too easy to alter your bat and cheat.

Usually it's tossed to the side as they run, along the first base line. If they throw behind they can be penalized for hitting the catcher, which could be used if you have a runner on third trying for home plate. And a bat in the way of play isn't fair either. So they have to toss it to the side where a bat boy can run and retrieve it.

And I don't even watch baseball! I did play a little in school, though.

I think it's a cultural thing you can't avoid, like soccer-type football over here. And thanks very much for the info! I'll make sure that Teja doesn't hit anybody with his bat, then, when he throws it aside and starts running.

I decided for Teja, not Donova, for the sake of crackiness; also, Donovan would know about baseball, and my personal cluelessness would reflect on him. Teja, though, is excused because he died in AD 552...

I think that's the perfect excuse! Let Teja carry the bat with him and try to beat the base-men away when they try to tag him or the base for an out!!!

Or when told not to, let him chuck the bat behind him and knock some people out!

Hee heee heeeeee!

Teja making his run with the bat, brandishing it but never hitting anybody, would of course be a hoot. He wouldn't drop his weapons, either, but run with them, after all. Wouldn't make him slower, either.

The following discussion might be fun as well:

Opposing team people: We didn't dare to tag him! He would have hit us! He's a barbarian warlord!

Teja: *scoffs* I have been told not to hit my opponents with the bat; I can abide by the rules. It is their own fault for not trusting me; do not blame me!

And oooo, the second one. Looks more...innocently menacing!

We are going to do it -- it will be fun!

I think the second icon is a very Teja and baseball vibe and you might offer them up in the back room too since new icons for special things are always fun.

I think that's a good idea! I'll use number two, and offer the other three for anybody on the backroom post so the non-iconmakers can have baseball icons!

Thanks!

You're welcome and I'm not really sure about watching on youtube.

I'd say start off with things like playoff games or world series since the quality of play is going to be good there. I'd check but I'm at work at the moment so not the best place to watch.

Very much not so -- saying you were looking at it to help a European friend research baseball sounds like a terminally lame excuse.

I have to go and take my laundry to dry at the laundrette, and lots of bottles to the bottle bank, now anyway, as I finished watching SPN 5.01, and the washer finished its work all by itself in the meanwhile.

Later, you might find me something, and we can talk, as I shall be on Pidgin or Meebo in my evening, after the errands.

Well, I'm working for another two hours then class but compared to yesterday. I'll actually be home earlier.

Have you looked at the official site for Major League baseball since they probably have winnowed the clips down or the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I actually could find you those links since I'm being your reference librarian that way. Baseball Hall of Fame clips and things and Baseball's Best on www.mlb.com. I hope these help.

I think I'll watch it tomorrow morning -- thanks for the links!

As stated above the bat is sort of dropped (gently) behind the first baseline. There it's collected by a bat boy and returned to the correct dugout so it's ready for the players next at bat. Given of course, that it wasn't damaged and doesn't need to be replaced. Players generally have more than one bat with them just in case of a break or crack.

As for your question about bats...Bats are made from a variety of different woods, and every player has their preferences. Some are a bit harder, some are softer, some break more easily...they all conform to a general standard but there are subtle variations. And yes, some big-league players, like Derek Jeter for example, have personalized bats. Derek's has his signature toward the end of all of his bats.

Thanks for the info! I've already decided to let Teja run off with his bat during his first at bat, and get told off for it. It is, after all, just a spontaneous, virtual game outside the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, so I guess no personalised bats or anything overly fancy. They'll probably have two or three bats to chose from; I'll have to ask about that in the plotting post. I think Teja is going for a bat made of harder wood, because he will expect to hit hard, as a former (now dead) wielder of battle-axes.

Just to put my two cents in about the icon. I like the one in the black shirt for Teja.

In primary school Rounders games, we had insufficient bats for every person to have one, so it was obligatory to drop it on penalty of being out.

Unfortunately this once resulted in me being forcefully whacked in the stomach with a flying bat as I came up to take my batting position, causing me to burst into tears and have it rubbed better by the teacher.

Owww! And awwww!

That was more or less cricket, though, I guess?

But bat is bat; and I guess Teja is most certainly not going to whack it forcefully into anybody's stomach during the game in Milliways.

No, we played cricket as well but this was Rounders. Maybe rounders is British - it's a game arranged around points shaped like an envelope (four bases at the corners, a bowler in the middle, and a batsman on what would be the pointy bit of the envelope that you'd lick). You hit the ball with a baseball bat shaped bat and then run around the four bases. Rules vary slightly from school to school, but generally you only get one shot at hitting the ball each time - anywhere forwards is a valid hit (there's no V shape that you have to hit in), hitting backwards means you can only run to first base until the ball comes in front of the batting point, same with missing the ball entirely. You must run whether or not you hit the ball, unless it's a no-ball (the bowler must send the balls at a height between shoulder and knee), in which case you get another ball.

Players can be out if the ball touches a base before they run to it, but they can choose to stop at a previous one and be safe, so long as it hasn't already been touched by the ball. Players can also be caught out, or run out - if a player behind you runs for your base, forcing you to run to a tagged base. Mean kids sometimes do this accidentally on purpose. Some schools include a variant - hitting the ball into an inaccessible place constitutes Out.

You score one Rounder for getting all the way around in one go, regardless of how well you hit the ball. Some schools let you have half a rounder for getting half the way round in one go. Getting around in multiple goes does not, if I recall correctly, earn you anything - but since the game usually continues until there are no players able to bat there is a need to get back safely.

So actually not at all like cricket! Or certainly not the way I remember it.

Thank you for that long explanation! It sounds like a fun and clever game, including both skill and strategy.

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Stupid questions about baseball

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