1) Completely and utterly intentional.

 

2) If the kid had a full ride offered, it would have been over the top to have it withdrawn for this. But, he was offered a walk-on spot, the punishment is fair and just.

 

3) From what I have heard and read the umpire deserves a far worse punishment for the fact that he is trying to profit from this. 18 year old kid makes a despicable mistake it needs to be punished, but can be understood. For a grown man to hold a grudge and do something despicable only to make money, that is unforgivable!

 

4) Why fine the school 1,000 dollars? Fine the coach 1,000 dollars if you are going to fine anyone!

 

 

That' what wrong with sports. You admit it was intentional, say the punishment was correct, unless he had a full schollie. Then you would have given him a break. That's why athletes think they can get away with murder!

 

If it were my own kid who did that, I would still want them kicked off their college team, schollie or walkon. We need to quit treating these kids like prima donas.

After review, I think the catcher is 100% innocent. It appears to me that the ball hits the batter's helmet and the catcher is ducking out of the way because there's no way of knowing where the ball is going to go.

No way did the ball hit the batters helment. Watch the batter, no reaction by him that the ball hit him.

Watch it again and watch the slow motion part of the video. The helmet moves as if it were struck with the ball. Also, why would they intentionally throw a wild pitch in the title game with a runner on second?

 

I completely disagree. First, Watch the trajectory of the ball from the time it leaves the pitcher's hands, it doesn't change at all. Second, watch the reaction of the batter. He doesn't move at all. It's almost a certain that someone is going to at least duck or flinch if a ball is coming at their head. Third, after the pitch hits the umpire he's looking at the runner waiving him to stop. If he had gotton hit I'm sure he would have known it was a dead ball. He would have took off toward 1st, not stay in the box waiving the runner to stay. Forth, the umpire never calls "dead ball". If it had hit the batter then he would have seen it and heard it hit his helmet. I'm an umpire and I've been hit by hundreds of pitches, many of which has hit the batter first and I've always been able to make the determination of a hit batsman. I'm sure this umpire has also and considering it was a state championship game, I would imagine that he has quite alot of experience. Lastly, I doubt very seriously if they would punish that kid so severely if the batter had been hit first. That college would not have revoked his offer if that were the case. I'm sure this pitch has been scrutinized by the top state athletic officials and if it had hit the batter, don't you think it would have been considered? I don't think there is any question that the batter wasn't hit. Think logically about it and I think it speaks for itself.

 

Oh, and why would someone do that in the state title game? Look at what the score was and there is the answer. JMO!

In another possibility... although slightly far fetched (maybe) Is it possible that the pitcher and catcher had a mix up... perhaps the pitch was supposed to be a cutter or something of that nature in the dirt, and the catcher prematurely went to the dirt to block it. It did look somewhat reminiscent of a catcher going to the dirt to block a ball.

 

I thought of that also but watch the catcher, he follows the ball with the glove from the release. No way.

The problem with any of the arguments supporting the catcher is that the catcher's movement and actions are so un-natural that it can only be intentional.

 

By the way, the way the umpire was walking after the catcher, he knew what just happened.

 

EXACTLY!!!

It did not hit the batters helmet I mean really, how many games of baseball have you been at you can easily here it hit the helmet, I am sure that the batter would know if it hit his helmet, he wouldn't be telling the runner to advance to third if it hit him in the helmet he would be trotting to first base. And if it even grazed like one thread on the helmet the catcher it still ducking down like he is going to body up a ball in the dirt. It's one of the dirtiest things in baseball to do and if it werent for him being a senior this year he should been suspended games next season for it. Good call by the college by taking away his scholarship because seems as if this kid has some ethical problems.

It was intentional all the way, there couldn't have been a mix up, there is no catcher that automatically falls to his knees to block up just because he thought a curveball, which seemed to be the pitch, was called. You still follow it in with your eyes and glove, if he can't see the ball to do that he 1) doesnt even need to be recrutied for college and 2) needs not to be playing catcher any more because he wasn't even close to getting any type of leather on that pitch. Cross ups dont get missed by that much by a catcher becuase your first reaction is to "catch" the ball not just drop and put your head down.

In another possibility... although slightly far fetched (maybe) Is it possible that the pitcher and catcher had a mix up... perhaps the pitch was supposed to be a cutter or something of that nature in the dirt, and the catcher prematurely went to the dirt to block it. It did look somewhat reminiscent of a catcher going to the dirt to block a ball.

 

If the pitcher could throw a ball that breaks that much, his name would have surely been called in the 1st round of the MLB draft. Its not every day that a pitcher comes along throwing a 6' drop breaking ball.:rolleyes:

After watching the video about 10 times, it appears that the ball does hit the helmet of the batter and the catcher is reacting to the ball heading for him. My guess is that the catcher was not a fault.

Did you read the article? This was a High School championship game. The kid already had a scholarship from a college but the college withdrew it because of this incident.

 

 

The kid had an invitaiton to walk on. There was no mention of scholarship according to the news report.

This same incident happened again in a summer league recently. The ump threw the catcher and the pitcher out of the game. The coach may have left early as well. When the team kept arguing instead of finding replacements, blue called the game.