Hit
Reaching base safely on a batted ball without an error or fielder's choice.
What it actually is. A batted ball that lets the hitter reach base safely without an error and without a fielder choosing to throw somewhere else.
What a scout reads off it. The scorer's judgment is inside this number more than people realize. Hit or error on a hard ground ball to the shortstop's backhand is one person's opinion, and that opinion is the difference between a batting title and second place often enough to matter.
Where the lines are. Three thousand hits is the number that has meant a career since the 1920s. Pete Rose finished with 4,256 and Ty Cobb with 4,189, and nobody active is close.
Batter's Eye: look up anything in baseball