Hit by pitch

A batter is Hit by pitch (abbreviated HBP), when he is hit by a pitched ball; the ball is dead and the batter is awarded first base. However, if the pitch was in the strike zone, if the batter swung, or if he made no effort to get out of the way, the umpire will call a strike (or a ball) and play continues. Effectively, a hit by pitch is the same as a walk except runners cannot advance past one base. The pitcher may be warned if the umpire considers the pitch to have been intentional (see bean ball).

Hit by pitch is a statistic for batters; for pitchers, it is called a "hit batsman".

All Time Leaders
Span	Player	Total	Notes
Career	Hughie Jennings	287
Career (since 1900)	Craig Biggio	273
Season	Hughie Jennings	51	1896
Game	Many Players	3

Further Reading

• Gary Belleville: "Ron Hunt, Coco Crisp, and the Normalization of Hit-by-Pitch Statistics", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 47, Nr. 2 (Fall 2018), pp. 32-39.
• Jerry Nechal: "Were Pitchers More Likely to Throw at Black Batters? 1947-66", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 51, Number 2 (Fall 2022), pp. 52-55.
• Steve Treder: "The HBP Explosion (That Almost Nobody Seems to Have Noticed)", The Hardball Times, January 30, 2007. [1]