ALOTT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL EDITION: I can't believe there are people who believe that "batting around" can be accomplished by a baseball team with only nine batters. People:
it doesn't count until the tenth batter comes to the plate.
The no-braineriest of no-brainers.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely 9.
ReplyDeleteThey haven't batted around until It screws up my scorebook.
ReplyDeleteShow your work. It's not batting around until the original batter comes back up to the plate, so 10 batters.
ReplyDeleteTeam 10!
ReplyDeleteI did not realize that this was even up for debate.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of baseball, at the Little Earthling's little league game last night, he's playing catcher and the ball gets passed him, off the back stop and ends up behind the umpire's feet. The umpire *does not move*. Guy scores from 3d (probably cleanly on the pass ball), but the guy from 2d scores to and he'd have not tried to advance from 3d if cleanly played.
ReplyDeleteI don't argue, because these are 8th graders who mostly do a pretty good job, but I'd like to pass the word to the parents who manage the umpire corps.
An umpire is to keep a lane clear to the ball, right? Is there a rule about this, or is this just a common law understanding.
It doesn't (or at least shouldn't) count until the 10th batter does something that results in a plate appearance. If he comes to the plate but a runner gets picked off to end the inning, that 10th batter will lead off the following inning and the team will not have batted around.
ReplyDeleteIt's still not.
ReplyDeleteThe batting order is a cycle. Batting around is completing the cycle. The cycle is complete once the next step is the same as the first step. Following a home run, the batter rounds the bases, touching each one once; s/he does not touch home plate twice to finish going around. When a team throws the ball around the horn, it generally starts with the catcher throwing to first base and the ball being passed across the infield, ending with the third baseman throwing the ball to the pitcher; the ball need not go back to the catcher or the first baseman to have gone around. Similarly, in non-baseball usage, "around" typically means a full circuit and does not require a repeat of the first step: if I say I am going to run around the track (or swim around the lake or fly around the world), I can finish precisely where I started without repeating the first steps of my journey. Once all nine batters in the order have finished their plate appearances, the cycle is complete and team has batted around, because the next offensive play will be the batter who hit first coming up again. That batter need not do so for the team to have batted around.
ReplyDelete"The cycle is complete once the next step is the same as the first step. "
ReplyDeleteAnd that is why it's not batting around until the first batter bats again, so ten batters.
I think so. Full credit to you for not griping at the time and passing a word along discreetly seems the best way to handle it.
ReplyDeleteYou are saying that the last step must be the same as the first. But that proves too much. As long as the next step--which can be deferred to the following inning--must be the same as the first, then the cycle has been completed and the team has batted around its order, with plate appearances by each of the nine hitters in the lineup.
ReplyDeleteIt's completed the order with 9 batters; it goes around when it starts the order again, so 10 batters.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to agree to disagree. It has gone around--one round, complete in itself--when it completes the order. No redundancy is required.
ReplyDelete