As far as I can remember, when concerning baseball, it has always been a '3 strikes and you're out' rule, but evidently not! You must remember, this incident happened in the minor leagues. If they were to apply this rule in Major League Baseball, the games would be a lot quicker, to say the least.
Anyway, to make a short story even shorter, the minor league player in the video I'm about to provide a link for, didn't like that the umpire called a ball that was clearly outside, a strike. Well, he had a few words, then stepped back from home plate to gather his self. Somehow, during that time frame, the umpire called 2 more additional strikes on him. The claim was that he violated Rule 6.02 (c), which reads as follows:
"If the batter refuses to take his position in the batter’s box during his time at bat, the umpire shall call a strike on the batter. The ball is dead, and no runners may advance. After the penalty, the batter may take his proper position and the regular ball and strike count shall continue. If the batter does not take his proper position before three strikes have been called, the batter shall be declared out.
Comment: The umpire shall give the batter a reasonable opportunity to take his proper position in the batter’s box after the umpire has called a strike pursuant to Rule 6.02(c) and before the umpire calls a successive strike pursuant to Rule 6.02(c)."
The source of those rules, can be found here:
sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/astros-minor-leaguer-vinnie-catricala-strikes-one-pitch-182609577.html [Link is no longer active; how convenient]
If you would like to watch the YouTube video, go here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=34-vgeCIMMU [Video is no longer available]
After viewing that video, to me, it looks like the umpire is the one who needs a strike 3. If you are going to call an oddball rule like that, one should at least warn the player after the second strike. It looks more like to me, that the umpire knew that he made a bad call and didn't like the minor league player's response, so in turn he showed his authority by pulling some petty rule out of his backside. What do you think?
Image Credit: noillyprattle.blogspot.com/2012/05/teaching-moment.html
Update: I really hate that when I come back to a post a few years later only to find that the links are no longer active and/or that the videos are no longer available, etc. I guess that is just the nature of the beast, but still... For future reference, certain posts depend on resources more than others, so it might be a good idea to produce more "evergreen" articles that never wilt from failed systems or broken links.
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---End of Post "Minor League Player Strikes Out on One Pitch"
---End of Post "Minor League Player Strikes Out on One Pitch"
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