Everything is lining up for a sideways swing from you. That's how a bat works. We know this is the way it's going to be going in, unless batter does something unusual like a downward chop, and that's still gonna be pretty sideways unless it's completely vertical.

Whichever foot is in front, closing the gap is the same thing. Knife guy would see no advantage in any complex foot positioning. Just charge in.

Knife guy doesn't need much power at all, even less with the force of his charge/closing behind it. And switching hands is easy. I'm going to assume he'll be using whatever hand is opposite the side batter is swinging from. If batter manages to change swing so it comes from opposite side of body, knife guy can easily do that much faster than him. Switching is not a problem.

The only thing knife guy would have to worry about switching is from an overhand stab to a more conventional slashing hold. Which can also be very quickly.

I envision this: you swing from your right, as a right hander. I have knife in my right, since that's the furthest from your bat and I can't have the arm doing the absorbing be the one with the knife. You probably don't land the perfect blow, but shock the crap out of me and have a good chance of breaking my left arm too. I may have gotten my blade at least partially into your gut or chest by that point, too.

We're both off balance by them, but I probably get at least two extremely dangerous blows or slashes before you can muster up much of a defense. If you manage to recoil, I follow you, and if I can't stab I switch grip and start slashing. If you still have your bat at this point, and are still alive, you don't have much room to be effective with it. You probably pick up defensive wounds trying to block the knife, getting you ready to lose a lot of blood. You might get a strike in, might not. It might be good and land square, or might not. It probably won't make much difference in the end, because if I do just a little more slashing, you're almost done, and if I get in one or two more stabs, I might as well just walk away and let you die. I've got a broken arm and maybe broken rib, who knows. You're dead or dying, and every second I'm anywhere near you, your chance of dying goes up enormously.

Certainly after I pummel blarg

Someone should contact mythbusters..

Seriously.

fyp.

I have a feeling Teller is really not gonna like this one ...

LOL nh. I stand corrected!

teller is on different show?

kinsa surprised you think this. the difference is a glancing blow with a knife is likely very damaging.

I was in a bat/knife fight as a teen. On the way back from the park, an older guy pulled a knife and tried to rob me. I dropped my mitt and jabbed at him with the bat and once I got some space I held him at bay by just feinting a couple swings and screaming help at the top of my lungs.

He was larger, faster, and stronger than me, but in an equal fight, I still think I take the knife. In order to get a real debilitating swing in, you're going to have to put a fair amount of momentum into it and you're going to leave yourself exposed. Additionally, you won't go head hunting, b/c you'll want to be sure to connect so that your follow up backswing is shorter. I don't think a really hard swing into a guy's side, even if you [censored] his ribs up, is going to prevent him from sticking a knife in your gut/eye.

Even though my encounter probably only lasted a minute, I just remember being terrified that if he back stepped, he was going to stab the [censored] out of my back and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

I knew I didn't really want to read this thread, I knew it would just tilt me after the previous discussions on it.

My answer is bat. I have read pretty much every post in this thread and the other posted. Its still bat. Your answers will not change either. Just stop arguing.

I think I only saw one of those shows. But it sounds like something Penn would love to bring him in on. As Teller says, he's not the first Teller.

He meant Penn & Teller have a different show (Bull%&*#).

Mythbusters stars two guys named Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.

it's obvious knife will win, since once you pick up a bat, your feet become roots, and you can't move at all.

and apparently once you pick up a knife, you can move at super sonic speeds and not be be affected by pain.

There we go. I got the names mixed up. Guess I think of them as kind of the same thing.

I wish someone trained in fighting with both weapons could weigh in on this instead of a bunch of poker players who haven't been in a fight in years, if ever, and probably never a fight with weapons.

Blarg has some formalized fighting training, so I'm going with his opinion.

If pain was going to decide the outcome of the fight, it was over before it began.

assuming that the guy with the knife is really tough and he can take a bat hit to the arm and keep on going. the guy with the bat is then equally as tough as him, so he will be able to hit harder and faster than most people, so he's going to be able to crack him the arm and then land a few more hits on his head and torso and knock him out before he can use the knife.

Being tough gives you super speed? Who knew??

Are you insane? "A few more hits"? lol

Maybe if the guy with the knife is crawling over to cut him, yeah.

Bat by a mile.

This "blocking" nonsense is completely absurd. Anyone who thinks they can absorb or deflect a full swing of a baseball bat is either insane or jacked on PCP. I think a lot of pro-knife people are forgetting how incredibly hard you can swing (or chop) a bat. Any physicists want to work out the PSI in play here?

- bat to shin or knee: you're barely mobile, assuming you can even put weight on it. No stabbing will occur.
- bat to hip: barely mobile because your hip bone is shattered. Extremely painful I would imagine, probably hard to put weight on it. No stabbing will occur.
- bat to ribs, chest, back: you can't breathe for a good ten seconds, broken bones. No stabbing will occur.
- bat to head: you're dead, or severely incapacitated. No stabbing here either.

Knifers will say "but one stab can be fatal too", and I agree, but the batter will strike first at least 90% of the time.

lol ok Dr. ardubz. you're going to be shattering hip bones with your ferocious bat swings? get real lol

mbillie, you've made some good arguments, but I think most of us have trouble with your attitude that it's a slamdunk and a bat is pretty much useless as a weapon.

You keep saying IF the bat misses with the first swing, etc. Well, what if it didn't? You act like there would be not much effect on the knife wielder. But that's just silly.

MAYBE the knife is the best choice, but your credibility suffers when you completely discount the bat as a lethal weapon.

I also think it's very unlikely you will hit the perfect sweet spot with your swing against a moving target to deliver your power. Or are you going to sneak up behind him?

Again, if your power is often even a little, your force is off a lot. Compare that to a knife -- which needs very little force.

It's also clear that pain is not going to be an automatic wrap-up to the story. If someone slammed you with a baseball bat and you knew the next blow was going to kill you, would you go OWWWWWW!!!! and stop fighting, or, alternatively, not commit immediate suicide?

The life impulse is pretty strong. So is adrenalin and rage. The suicide impulse, not so much ...