Question for baseball fans: caught behind.

[SwissTony]

Hi, I'm a baseball ignoramus. My background is cricket. Probably tells you enough.

In cricket, it quite often happens that a batsmen (batter) just edges the ball and is "caught behind" by the wicketkeeper (catcher). The batsman is then out. Is this legal in baseball? Does it happen often?

I'm not talking about situations where a batter hits a ball basically vertically and the catcher can get under the ball and catch it in the non-foul zone.

Is the usual position of the catcher by definition in the "foul zone".

Please excuse my ignorance.

Thanks to any responses.

[opiate69]

1. It sounds like what you're describing is what we call a foul tip.

And basically, keeping in mind a batter gets 3 strikes per at-bat, a foul tip is considered a strike, regardless of whether the catcher catches it or not, except for situations where it would be strike three. In that case, the catcher must catch the foul tip for it to be a strike.

[SwissTony]

2. Thank you. I'd never heard of the expression "foul tip".

The reason I was asking was because cricketing batsmen don't have to run when they hit the ball. They often offer fairly static shots (little or no bat swing) and sometimes edge the ball to the wicketkeeper or slips (ancillary fielders behind the batter assisting the wicketkeeper). Also wicketkeepers stand well back when fast bowlers (pitchers) are bowling but stand up close when spinners (slow bowlers) are bowling. Catchers always stand (ok, squat) seemingly millimetres from the batter.

They take those catches!!!??? I'm genuinely impressed!!!

[opiate69]

3. You're quite welcome! I know next to nothing about cricket, but always was curious...

I really should spend a little time on YouTube and Wikipedia boning up on it. And yeah, catcher is a brutal position. It's enormously hard on the body. But, he really is kind of the field general, telling the pitcher what to throw and where, helping direct positioning of the fielders, etc.