As with many of ouyr best opinion polls, this one started with a visitor request. Dan Donovan runs the rules committee for his youth league organization in Georgia. Recently he had a "hit by pitch" situation that he believes needs a rule to address. Here's what happened in his own words...

 
We had a team leave a pitcher in the game as he hit 5 batters. One batter went to the hospital after being hit in the mouth and received 5 stitches. How many batters should a pitcher be allowed to hit before he is 'automatically' pulled in a 9/10 recreation league game?
 

We turned to the WebBall community for their ideas and votes. And here's what we found...


We first asked if Dan's desire to implement a rule which would limit hit batters by the same pitcher is a good idea? And of those who answered yes, we wanted to know the magoc number - after how many hit batters should a pitcher be removed?

By far, the vast majority wanted a rule and thought 3 pitches was the right number to initiate removal of the offending pitcher.


We also wanted to know if the voters saw this as an age specific issue. The initial percentage after each response is what all voters thought. But notice the variances...

Notice (left column) the much higher percentage in the 13-15 bracket who did not think the rule should apply to their division - only to younger ages.

Also notice (right column) the higher % of younger age voters who wanted a break - a variance in the number of HBP offenses before the rule kicked in. In our view, each event has the same risk but delaying the inevitable could make coaches and leagues more liable.



We also wanted to know what poercentage of our voters were from leagues/associations that already had a rule to remove pitchers...

...and what penalities or consequnces either are - or should be - imposed...


Clearly such risk can be minimized when kids are taught the turn and duck move. So we asked if it's teaching should be covered at some point or made mandatory from the start...
Voter comments are now posted.