What you can see you can catch. When I was in Hi-school I happened to got involve in a street fight. While walking home a group of two were locked in a scramble, one guy from the other group thought me and my friends were trying to reinfore the other group. To cut short the story, the guy with the bat swung the baseball bat obviously aiming for my head. Instinctively my arms and and hand moved to cover my head, suddenly the guy, sensing of a poor hit re-aimed the bat to my left rib-cage. He swung fast and hard but I was able to anticipate the flight path, somehow
. I was fighting for life at that moment you know. As he swung towards me I let the bat flow thru to near rib cage impact as I raised my left arm to clutch the bat
. The bat did hit my rib cage and it did hurt
. But I was able to clutch locked the bat and never let go. The guy got startled and had to let go. When I got the bat I was wildly waiving it in the air like capt. caveman and the guy just took off.
Thru those moments I never felt pain
but few minutes after the hit I was grimacing with pain and had to be sent to the hospital for x-rays
I was lucky though.
As for the bat as a weapon, better to have one than none in serious situations.