Wilyer Abreu breaks his bat on a check swing

Ad material for Marucci lol

quote:

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Is that a judgment call by the ump, or the letter of the law because the bat broke the plane

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Technically there are no official rules as to what constitutes a "swing" in baseball, it's all a judgment call by the umpires as to whether they think the batter attempted to strike the ball or not. Nothing in the rule book officially states anything about "breaking the plane" or "rolling the wrists" or anything like that. I would THINK this should have been called a no swing since he never really attempted at the ball (regardless of where his barrel ended up). Maybe since it was a spring training game the ump was having a bit of fun (or maybe he thought he DID attempt at the ball, it's harder to catch in full speed).

Here's a fun video of what used to be considered a check swing. Sandy Koufax pitching in the '65 World Series (Vin Scully on the call). Batter goes almost completely around on back to back pitches, but it's called a no swing both times. No one complains or seems surprised so I assume this is just how it was called back then.