Crabby_Bob wrote:To coxjj's point: the defense must play well too. For example, the batter hits an easy ground ball to shortstop, who fields it and makes the throw to first base on time, except nobody is there. The batter isn't successful, he hasn't "earned" the right to first base, therefore, call him out.
No. The game is about good play, fielding, throwing, catching, quickness, hitting away from fielders. The game is setup to require good play from offense and defense.
I never said the batter didn't earn the right to first base, I said the the batter didn't earn the right to
reach first base. Putting the ball into play allows you the opportunity to get to first. Whether you make it there or not has nothing to do with the right you earned to reach base ... that already occurred when you hit a fair ball. Whether you hit it hard or soft, high or low, right at a fielder or right at no one, and what the defense did to react to it, doesn't do anything to the batter's right to reach base ... it just needs to be a fair ball. All of that enters into determining whether you get to
stay there, but not your ability to try to get there in the first place. On a D3K, the offense did NOTHING to earn the right to get there; they totally failed.