why does this sound dirty to me?

It's all in your mind....I was just having a snarky moment.

batters faced not outs

jesus christ this is driving me nuts. for every out there must be a batter, correct? If he's pitched a perfect game through 8 innings, he's faced 24 batters. Score is 0-0. 1st batter in 9th hits home run. Game over.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhh.

Yes, but still faces twenty-five batters.

I guess this based on some weird definition of an "at bat"?

There must be a result to the batter to qualify as an at bat. I can't remember the stipulation for pinch hitters in the middle of an at-bat though.

Got the 11 pitches one. Didn't get the 25 batters faced one. Those are two nice trivia brain teasers to give people. Ask the question, and if they don't get the right answer, give them the answer and ask them again to figure out why.

My mind went immediately to Djibouti, because I vividly remember laughing about it in elementary school with some friends when we saw it on a map

This is a good one, because what happens is you instantly get caught up because you arent SURE if it counts as a "complete game" if the game is rain-shortened or something, so you just insist it must be somewhere around 15 or some technicality where it must be X innings or something, so you sort of stop thinking creatively about what really happens in baseball games all the time. Most baseball fans have probably even SEEN a handful of 25 PA CG's (random guess, dont know how rare it actually is) but you dont think of it right away because of the alluring trap of rainouts.

I like this one, I'm stealing it, to add it to my "What are the 6 ways you can reach first without ever hitting the baseball?" as my favorite quirky baseball questions.

I'm going to guess one invlolves a runner already on first getting sent back to first for some reason because I can think of five ways (although I'm not sure if a balk is also technically a walk).

Nope, nothing like that. Most casual fans know 3, most real fans know 4, anyone who has played somewhat seriously knows 5, and really only douchebags who know this question or umpires or something tend to know all 6. I dont want to put the answer in a spoiler quite yet, but I'm sure I know which 5 you already have. Hitter doesnt advance to first on a balk, though.

Doesn't a hitter advance to first on a balk with three balls?

Rule 8.01(b) Comment: With no runners on base, the pitcher is not required to come to a complete stop when using the Set Position. If, however, in the umpire’s judgment, a pitcher delivers the ball in a deliberate effort to catch the batter off guard, this delivery shall be deemed a quick pitch, for which the penalty is a ball. See Rule 8.05(e) Comment.


8.04
When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call “Ball.” The 12-second timing starts when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the box, alert to the pitcher. The timing stops when the pitcher releases the ball.
The intent of this rule is to avoid unnecessary delays. The umpire shall insist that the catcher return the ball promptly to the pitcher, and that the pitcher take his position on the rubber promptly. Obvious delay by the pitcher should instantly be penalized by the umpire.


Okay, in the first case, it's a balk with runners on base, but it's a ball with no runners on base. The second explains itself.

Well, I was counting that as an actual walk (because he only gets first if he already has a 3-ball count), but I agree, you could count that as a unique situation as well. But that isnt what I had in mind for the 6th one. So now its 7. As a hint, the last one involves relief pitchers. And I've never seen it happen ever in an actual game, and am not 100% positive what would actually happen, but I'm fairly positive that the rule is the hitter would be awarded first base.

Just to be clear, the 5 you already have are, most likely,


is that correct?

Yeah, I don't know about this one.

I was thinking 1, 2, 4, and 5.

I didn't think of 3 because I was thinking of a hitter.

I also was thinking IBB because it's different than a BB in the book, isn't it? And yeah, like John Cole, I was thinking a 3 ball count balk with open bases, even though that's sort of a walk.

By the way, I've never heard of #5 referred to as that, even though I know what you're referring to.

Do you mean making contact, or getting an official hit?

For what it's worth, a batter who has an existing count when the third out is made on a caught stealing, starts anew; it is a different at-bat, not a continuation.

As to the perfect game question, I thought it was 27 PO (nine innings) without a base runner, no matter what the situation. Even in case of a scoreless tie, and he gives up a hit in extra innings (like Harvey Haddix). I didn't think rain outs could be a factor in being counted as "official" perfect games. An "official" perfect game is a minimum of 27 up, 27 out.

The only thing I can figure is

If he takes more than the allotted number of pitches to warm up?

kudz, are you referring to the complete game question? Different from perfect game.

Without making contact with the bat on the ball (worded this way to include HBP and catchers interference, but this wording has no impact on this last one).

I'm going to look pretty stupid if it turns out that I've been wrong about this last one all along, but I dont think I am, I think its just pretty obscure.

Close, but way off. Sort of the opposite of that, in a way.

D'oh

Apparently some of the chemicals I ingested in a previous life kicked in, and somewhere in there I was seeing the words "perfect game."

Maybe I should go take some more, just be on the safe side...

A real guess--something to do with the relief pitcher not announced.

Along the lines of toasting....

The Greeks toasted to the health of their friend's to assure them that the wine they were about to drink wasn't poisoned. It became a symbol of friendship for the host to pour wine from a common pitcher, drink it before his guests, and satisfied that it was a good experience, raise his glass to his friends to do likewise.

The Romans copied this act from the Greeks. The term toast comes from the Roman practice of dropping a piece of burnt bread into the wine. This was done to fix some of the bad wines the Romans sometimes had to drink. The charcoal reduces the acidity of wines making them more tasty.

Very close. A relief pitcher must face at least one hitter before he can be removed. So if he comes in to face a guy, but then is replaced, the hitter is awarded first base. Like I said, I would imagine its officially credited as a walk, but the count is irrelevant.

I dont think this applies if the relief pitcher is injured, but I'm not certain.