Randall Munroe of XKCD has started a new delightful new sidelog of weekly answers to hypothetical reader questions called What If. The first two entries regard guessing on every multiple-choice SAT question and trying to hit a baseball going 90% the speed of light.
The answer turns out to be “a lot of things”, and they all happen very quickly, and it doesn’t end well for the batter (or the pitcher).
My favorite part so far is this bit, which clearly would have been an XKCD alt-text if it had been a regular comic:
A careful reading of official Major League Baseball Rule 6.08(b) suggests that in this situation, the batter would be considered “hit by pitch”, and would be eligible to advance to first base.