Youth Baseball Digest - Can You Name 10 Ways a Batter Can Safely Reach First Base?

Coach Nick Dixon - Nedco Sports - Boaz High Baseball

Youth Baseball Digest - Can You Name 10 Ways a Batter Can Safely Reach First Base?
By Nick Dixon

Have you ever thought about how many ways a batter can safely reach first base? I have pondered the question and I have come up with 10 different ways for a batter to safely reach first base.

The ways that I thought of include the following:

1) Base Hit - Batter swings the bat and hits a base hit. In baseball statistics a base hit is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory.

2) Walk or Base on Balls - A base on balls or walk is credited to a batter when the batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. The walk can be intentional or not intentional.

3) Error - A batter reaches on an error when, in the judgment of the official score book keeper, a fielder misplays a ball hit by the batter allowing the batter to reach first base. The ball misplayed is one that the official scorer judges to be a play that should have been made with reasonable or ordinary effort. What this means is that the fielder misplayed a routine play.

4) Passed Ball on a Strike Out: The batter strikes out but the catcher misses the ball. The batter becomes a batter-runner and reaches first base safely. This play should be officially scored as a strikeout and passed ball, a strikeout and wild pitch or a strikeout and a fielders choice.

5) Catcher Commits Interference - Catchers interference is called when contact is made by the bat of the batter. With catcher interference, the result is the same as with all interference, The batter is awarded the results of the swing or first base. The manager of the offense may advise the plate umpire that he elects to decline the interference penalty and accept the play

6) Fielders choice - A fielder`s choice is a play made on a ground ball in which the fielder chooses to put out an advancing base runner, thus allowing the batter to reach first base safely.

7) Batter-Runner Interference - Once the batter hits the ball the batter becomes a base runner. The batter becomes a runner and is entitled to first base without interference by a defensive player. If interference occurs, the manager of the offense may advise the plate umpire that he elects to decline the interference penalty and accept the play.

8) A Sacrifice - The batter hits a sacrifice fly or executes a sacrifice bunt.

9) Double Play - The batter reaches first on a double play by the defense that did not involve a throw to first base.

10) Hit by a Pitch - The batter is hit by a pitch thrown by the batter. The batter must be in the batting box and in the judgment of the umpire did not "lean" into the pitch.

I am sure that you may think of one or two more. These are what came to my mine because they are the 10 ways that occur most often. I hope that you found this article to be informative. Thanks for taking the time to read it. I wish you and your team good luck in the coming season. Have a great day! Nick

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Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Dixon

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