h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nope, I still don't get it. Either I'm being very dense or the entry doesn't explain it well (or both).

"A Fielder's Choice"
Why is it called that?

"Usually in baseball, the strategy is to get the lead runner out so that subsequent runners have farther to go"
Why have they got farther to go? Every batter has to run the same distance - around all four bases - if they're going to score a run.

"If this strategy results in the batter getting on base"
We're talking about the 'subsequent runner' here, right?

"the batter [subsequent runner] is not credited with a hit even though he hit the ball and got on base. The theory is that he got on base only because someone got on base before him."
So, whenever a runner gets on base and there's already a runner - "someone got on base before him" - further around the bases, he's never credited with a hit? Or is that only when the other runner is got out? Or is that only when the other runner is the lead runner? Or is that only when the other runner is the lead runner *and* is got out? Is the team credited with a hit? Because I'm sure I've seen hits credited to teams when the bases gradually become loaded.

It is called a fielder's choice because once the hitter puts the ball in play, the fielder makes a conscious choice to try and get out the runner who was already on base. It often makes sense for the fielders to attempt to put out runners who were already on base, because those runners have already advanced closer to home than the batter.

If the player who hit the ball gets to first base safely, but any runner ahead of him gets out as a result of the play, the batter isn't credited with a hit because he caused an out to be recorded.

As a red-blooded American and die-hard baseball fan, I'll do my best to explain.

"A Fielder's Choice"
Why is it called that?
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It's called that because the fielder (the defensive player who catches, or "fields" the ball) has the choice of throwing out the lead runner and allowing the batter to get on first base, or of throwing out the batter. In the case of getting on base bacause of a fielder's choice, this is tracked different in baseball batting statistics because of the logic explained in the entry. In other words, the batter only got on first base because of the choice the fielder made, due to there already being a baserunner ahead of him.

"Usually in baseball, the strategy is to get the lead runner out so that subsequent runners have farther to go"
Why have they got farther to go? Every batter has to run the same distance - around all four bases - if they're going to score a run.
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"Further to go" here is referring to the distance from the base to home plate that the base runner has to go, not the distance the batter has to go or the total distance a batter/runner has to travel to score. If I'm the runner on second base, and you hit the ball to, say, the second baseman, that fielder will try to throw me out at third if at all possible (and if I try to run there) rather than throwing the easy toss to first base to get you out. This is to prevent me from getting closer to home and thus, for the next batter, having a much shorter distance to run home and score a run.

In practice, the play I described would likely result in "holding" me at second base, and then throwing out you the batter at first at the last moment. If I got a really good jump from second to third (and chances are high that I'd be taking a HUGE base lead in this situation, which is to say I'm wandering a fair distance from the base itself in anticipation of you getting a hit), the fielder may have no real "choice" but to throw you out at first, allowing me to get to third. A fielder's choice whereby you do not get on base at all, but sacrifice yourself to advance me, your pal forever, to third base and hopefully later on home plate!

"If this strategy results in the batter getting on base"
We're talking about the 'subsequent runner' here, right?
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Not sure what you mean here - for the sake of discussion here, this is referring to the batter who hit the ball. The batter is not a runner until they're on base, in our discussion here. The scenario is as I described, with you hitting the ball and the fielder throwing out either me or our buddy. You will not get credit for a hit in your stats even though you hit the ball and got on base. This is one of the chief differences between the batting average statistic and the on-base percentage statistic.

"So, whenever a runner gets on base and there's already a runner - "someone got on base before him" - further around the bases, he's never credited with a hit?"
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When I first was reading this, I was not sure of what you were asking. After I've thought about it, I see what you're getting at. Supposing the fielder makes the choice to attempt to throw out the lead runner but fails - specifically not due to an error, but simply because the other runner is just too fast - and thus the batter gets to first base as well as the runner getting to their next base. Is that considered a fielder's choice? I believe the answer to that is, "yes" because it was still the skill of the runner that allowed the fielder's attempt to fail. As long as the fielder could have easily thrown out the batter but made a choice to throw out the runner instead, that is a fielder's choice way to get to first. The question we should ask to determine if it's a fielder's choice is simply, "would the batter have likely been thrown out at first by the fielder if there hadn't been a lead runner?"

By the same token, it should be considered a hit for the batter who got to first base *if there was no chance* of the fielder throwing out the batter. In other words, if the batter hit the ball far enough that there was no practical way - no choice, you see - for the fielder to throw him out, then it's a hit that goes on his stats. Thus, a fielder's choice almost always applies to the infielders making the defensive play as outfielders rarely have the option to throw out either a lead runner or the batter due to their distance away from the bases.

So, only if the fielder first *has* the option, then chooses to throw out the lead runner instead, and so doing allows the batter to get on first base is it considered a "fielder's choice" way to get on first base.

"Or is that only when the other runner is got out?"
Not quite - it's if the other runner is *attempted* to be thrown out by the fielder who had the option, hence the term "fielder's choice." Whether the lead runner is thrown out or not, the fielder made the choice to go for the lead runner and thus allow the batter to get to first. A failed attempt at throwing out the lead runner due to an error (for example, a bad throw from the fielder) is probably tracked as a fielder's choice way to get on first, but an error on the record of the fielder for allowing the lead runner to advance also. Hence, it doesn't really mean the lead runner has to be thrown out for it to be a fielder's choice way for the batter to get to first.

"Or is that only when the other runner is the lead runner? Or is that only when the other runner is the lead runner *and* is got out? Is the team credited with a hit? Because I'm sure I've seen hits credited to teams when the bases gradually become loaded."
You seem to be confusing runner with batter. In the context of what we're talking about here, a runner is defined as someone who is already on base. Whether the batter reaches first or not, until the play is over he is still called the batter in our context here.

Ok. So, the next thing is that the "team" is not credited with a hit, it's an individual player stat. Indeed, as I explained above, the fielder's choice is simply where the fielder does not make the throw to first base to get the runner out, making the preferred choice to throw out a lead runner, when such a choice is said to exist. Whether the runner is actually thrown out as a result is not necessary for the "fielder's choice" to be considered the reason the player got on first base. As you say, there are plenty of times where a batter gets a hit and advances the runners without there being a fielder's choice involved - almost always this involves a hit to the outfield or an error on the infielder's part.

I think I've explained it all now, but if you still have questions, feel free to ask them again!

- JD

An example:

With a runner on first and nobody out, I hit a ground ball to the third baseman. He fields the ball and throws to second base, getting the lead runner out. The fielder covering second base (probably the second baseman in this example) then tries to throw me out at first, but because of my blazing speed, I beat the throw. So my team still has a runner on first (me) but we have one more out than before. The third baseman "chose" to throw out someone other than me, hence the term "fielder's choice". But since my team is worse off than before, I get no credit for the "hit".

If the third baseman did, in fact, throw me out at first and let the original runner get to second, that would be a sacrifice, since although my team still has one more out than before, the runner on second is much more likely to score on any subsequent hit, he only has to run home from second base, not from first (the runner on second is said to be "in scoring position"). (And the third baseman would probably be replaced.)

A common strategy is for the batting team's coach to signal a "hit and run", meaning the original runner takes off for second as soon as the pitcher lets go of the ball. Then its my job to make sure I hit the ball, preferably on the ground, so the third baseman (in my example) has no chance to throw the runner out at second, he started too early. Then he has to throw me out at first, same as if there hadn't been a runner before. That's still a sacrifice, and I did good, and the third baseman would not be replaced, he had no choice. If I don't hit the ball, the catcher will likely throw out the runner at second (and *I* get replaced).

The strategy continues ... there's a "pitchout", and even stolen coaching signals ... but another time.

Got all that? There will be a quiz.

Woops, I got interrupted in my response and didn't see messages 2 and 3 before I posted, sorry about the redundancy.

Okay, I'm a little clearer on it now. When I talked about hits being credited to the team, I was referring to the scoreboard at the game, which will show the runs scored for each innings, plus total runs, hits and errors.