Apples and oranges. Tripping is not part of track. Pitching over the inside of the plate and brushback pitches are part of baseball.
A certain amount of elbowing is part of track, at least in mid-d races. The line between defending your spot and interference can also sometimes get gray.
Bottom line, accidently hitting a batter, ok. Intentionally throwing at a batter is a punk bitch move and should be dealt with by doing a tap dance on that pitcher's head. I don't care what the tradition is, baseball is a babies game. Whah, it's sprinkling, we can't play. Whah, it's cold, we can't play.
The injury rate in baseball is actually higher than in football.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/110/3/e28.full.pdf
I remember one of the old-timers (from 40s or 50s) in Ken Burns' Baseball documentary (maybe PeeWee Reese?) saying if you were on first, and the batter hit into a double play, you HAD to take out the second baseman (or shortstop) for the force at second--take him down with a hard slide, or you couldn't come back to the dugout. The rest of the team was expecting you to do your part and take him out of the DP, or you couldn't show your face in the dugout. It's just the way it was.
Catchers also block the plate and force a collision in MLB. If the catcher does that in the softball leagues I've been in, it's interference. If the catcher blocks, it's interference and the runner is safe, if the runner collides with the catcher, it's interference and the runner is out. Not in MLB.
Brushing back batters is part of the game. Hitting a batter in the head is not acceptable in MLB. It's a brushback, not a beanball. Beanballs are quite rare.
The Giants Juan Marichal took a bat to Dodgers cather John Roseborough in like 1965.
As for the tripping comparison of track to baseball, a similar analogy would be "finishing your check" in hockey, which is accepted and not a penalty. If you did that in football it's a penalty for "roughing the passer."
Two different sports. In one it's a penalty and in the other it's not.
A friend of mine from Ireland said that baseball will never make it there. If you have a guy on one team with a bat and a guy on the other team right behind him, he'd hit him with the bat.
if were being honest the back of your skull, your spinal tap and crushing either temple will lead to death if it's a force of even a few pounds. Lungs are impossibly simple to collapse and renal failure and slow death is almost certain if done correctly. Studied 6 different disciples including Krav Maga which relies on extremity targeting. You and everyone you know are impossibly easy to kill and you've made it apparent with your comment how truly clueless you are regarding combat and the taking of life.
I was thinking, the lighter weight you are (just like in running), your velocity of speed would be much faster to tackle the pitcher vs carrying a bat, no?