Safe at First
Trivia brain teasers have some element of trivia in them, but they are not just pure trivia questions.
In major league baseball, there are six ways for the batter to make it safely to first base without getting a hit. What are they?
Answer
1) Base on balls (walk).
2) Hit by pitch (bean ball).
3) Catcher's interference (the batter hits the catcher with the bat instead of the ball)
4) Fielder's choice (someone else is thrown out at 2nd base, 3rd base, or home plate).
5) The batter strikes out swinging but the catcher drops the ball and can't throw the batter out.
6) Someone in the field makes an error and the batter makes it to first safely.
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Comments
Mogmatt16   
Jun 01, 2002
| uuuhhhhhhhhh..... don't you have to get a hit to have number 4 and 6 happen? |
Mogmatt16
Jun 01, 2002
| and also what about a balk? |
bobbrt
Jun 02, 2002
| For 4 and 6 to happen, the batter has to hit the ball, but this does not make it "a hit". Put simply, a hit occurs when the batter puts the ball into fair territory and the defense can't get him or any other offensive players out. In 4 and 6, the defense could have gotten the batter out but either made an error or decided to get someone else out instead.
As far as a balk is concerned, only runners already on base advance on a balk. The batter stays where he is. |
im_para_noid
Jun 03, 2002
| I would like to say that you could also get on base if the game you were playing in was rained out, and you started the game, then you were traded, before the next game was played, the other team would be forced to let someone on your previous team go on base for their loss |
(user deleted)
Jun 04, 2002
| pinch runner |
bobbrt
Jun 04, 2002
| I like Scholar's thinking on this, although I should have worded the question to say that there are six ways for A BATTER to make it to first safely - that was the intent of the question.
Paranoid, you're just thinking too hard. Don't hurt yourself. |
dewtell
Dec 10, 2002
| Bobbrt's clarification rules this out,
but if you wanted to push this towards
the "Trick" category, you could add:
7) Take the field as the first baseman.
|
Rowsdower
Dec 28, 2003
| Oh, man! I'm a baseball nut and this teaser is like mana!  |
cnmne
Jan 12, 2004
| Method 5 (catcher dropping the ball on a third strike) would be a passed ball. The batter could also make it to first on a wild pitch, provided it was the third strike. |
kcelf27 
Apr 29, 2005
| You guys are all talking another language to me... I figured there is only ONE way. MOVE!!!  |
geofreak2010
Jun 27, 2005
| I have an umping job tomorrow, i shud know that. oops.  |
zigthepig 
Jul 03, 2005
| i said the same as kcelf27. pretty obvious (then again ,as i've said many times b4, im british so i dont understand baseball
  |
smarty_blondy
Oct 01, 2005
| Sorry, we don't have baseball here.  |
shenqiang
Oct 21, 2005
| I thought it was...
the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth... |
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