Hit by Pitch

In baseball, hit by pitch (HBP), or hit batsman (HB), refers to the batter being hit in some part of the body by a pitch from the pitcher. Per baseball official rule, a batter becomes a baserunner and is awarded first base when he or his equipment (except for his bat):

* is touched by a pitched ball outside of the strike zone,
* and he attempts to avoid it (or had no opportunity to avoid it),
* and he did not swing at the pitch.

If all these conditions are met, the ball is dead, and other baserunners advance if they are forced to vacate their base by the batter taking first. The rule further clarifies that a hit by pitch is also called when a pitch touches a batter's clothing.

In the case where a batter swings and the pitch hits him anyway, the ball is dead and a strike is called. If the batter does not attempt to avoid the pitch, he is not awarded first base, and the pitch is ruled a strike if in the strike zone and a ball if out of the strike zone. In practice, umpires rarely make this call. Perhaps the most famous instance of a non-hit by pitch was on May 31, 1968, when Don Drysdale hit Dick Deitz with a pitch that would have forced in a run and ended Drysdale's scoreless innings streak at 44. Umpire Harry Wendelstedt ruled that Dietz made no effort to avoid the pitch, Dietz proceeded to fly out, and Drysdale's scoreless streak continued to a then-record 58 2/3 innings.

A hit by pitch can also be called on a pitch that has touched the ground. Such a bouncing pitch is like any other, and if a batter is hit by such a pitch, he will be awarded first unless he made no attempt to avoid it.

The rule awarding first base to a batter hit by a pitch was instituted in 1887.

hit the deck is when a batter drops or dives to the ground to avoid being hit by a pitch. "The third kind of pitch is the one that is coming right at your head. This one you don't even have time to think about. Some part of you sees the ball as it leaves the pitcher's hand, and something about the fact that the ball is coming straight toward your eye makes it almost disappear into a blind spot. You hit the deck before you even know you've done it."

"Beanball" is a colloquial sports term for a ball thrown at an opposing player with the intention of striking him such as to cause harm, often connoting a throw at the player's head (or "bean" in old-fashioned slang)

Chin music means a pitch that comes near the batter's face. The pitcher's intent may be to cause the batter to move "back" such that it is more difficult to hit a future outside pitch, to frighten the batter into a poorer batting approach, to intimidate opposing batters, or to actually hit the batter with the pitch. In the late 1800s, at baseball's inception, the phrase "chin music" was used to describe razzing or heckling from the fans. It began being used as a synonym for a brushback pitch around World War II.

In baseball, a brushback pitch is one thrown in such a way that the batter must move back to avoid it. It differs from the beanball in that the intent is not to hit the batter, but to force him to back off the plate, and be wary for the rest of the at bat. It is most commonly thrown as a fastball, although sometimes as a curveball. Play-by-play announcers will sometimes call a high brushback pitch as being "high and tight." Some announcers also call it "chin music"