u/KakaFilipo

My teenage son wants to buy an eMoto/electric dirt bike for fun riding. I’m not the most risk-averse parent, but the conversation went something like this.

P: What would you use it for?

K: To ride around the neighborhood, maybe to ride to school.

P: But you’d need one that’s street legal to ride on the streets and roads.

K: I could just ride in the bike lanes or on the sidewalk. It’s like an e-bike.

Now, I might be crazy, but a motorized vehicle that can do 50mph behind a 3000 watt motor doesn’t seem like it belongs on sidewalks or in bike lanes. But does the city or state actually have regulations for these things? If not, then who is taking the lead on making sure 30mph eMotos in bike lanes and on sidewalks doesn’t become normalized?

**Edited to add that we did tell him no. I told him a joke that I learned 20+ years ago. Q: What do trauma surgeons call motor cycle riders? A: Customers. If he wants a motor cycle he can get one when he’s an adult. But somebody needs to regulate these things because not only are kids getting hurt, but pedestrians and normal bike riders are going to get hurt, too.

I saw a youth game today where the batter swung at strike three but was hit on the hand by the pitch. The umpire ruled foul ball. I had an NFHS rulebook and casebook with me, so after the commotion died down, I went looking for a rule or case book play that covered this scenario, but I couldn’t find one.

(Tip for newer umpires — Google searching a rule can be inadvisable. The AI summary might very well be wrong because there are lots of rules myths that are reinforced on the internet, and AI doesn’t distinguish well between widely believed myths and the actual rules.)

Umpire Bible lists “hands are part of the bat” as the number one rules myths in baseball, but that site doesn’t have an OBR or NFHS rulebook reference (edited to correct that Umpire Bible does have an OBR rules reference listed — Rule 5.09(a)(6), Definitions (person), Definitions (touch), Definitions (strike (e))