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I'm not dismissing it. If I were dismissing it, I would be saying the bat, being so much slower than a knife, would be far easier to time, so the guy most likely to get off the first blow is the guy with the knife. And if that's the case, the first blow of the bat, if it comes at all, will be trivial, and the bat guy will be pretty much blown out of the water by either the first knife attack or all the subsequent knife attacks to come.
Guy with the knife IS much more mobile, fast, and deceptive than guy with the bat.
But I'm still assuming the guy with the bat gets off a very solid swing, enough to break an arm, maybe a rib. With the slower weapon, that's a pretty good score. The bat is being given pretty decent credit here.
Don't forget, too, that a knife is also intimidating. Neither party is likely to be feeling perfectly calm or all that great about what they're doing.
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This is a pretty naive post. To say that the person with the knife is MUCH more mobile and fast is wrong. Also, the bat person SHOULD NOT be using baseball type swings, he would be choked up, using vertical 45 degree angle shots that require the person with the knife to block their head. the second swing with the bat is almost immediate in this case, because one can swing from both sides quite easily.
A good vertical hit will not only shatter the forearm of the blocker, it has a good chance of connecting with the head. if you get in a headshot it is close to a lock, because the knifer will be seriously disoriented. if not, the second swing is already coming as the knifer lunges. bat man connects with head on second swing, as blocking forearm is [censored] and knife arm is attempting to stab.
knife stab, even to body, IS NOT GAME OVER FOR THE BAT MAN. people continue to live even with collapsed lungs and blood pouring out of them for quite awhile, especially with adrenaline raging. people survive with like 25 knife wounds often because knife deaths occur from loss of blood, not instantaneous death (unless heart or neck, which are near impossible).
taking stock - once knife has made first lunge, bat has broken knife forearm and also connected with knifer upperbody cleanly - either head and/or neck area. A knife wound has not taken down the bat man, on average, i'd say he is runnin at least 80% of his maximal ability.
the value of the bat is being able to immobilize / disorient your opponent easily. once this happens, headshots become easier and you can pummel someones skull in IMMEDIATELY. by contrast, it is inaccurate to suggest that a single knife stab, which is likely glancing rather than deep and piercing, is going to be instantly fatal. it may not even immobilize the bat man significantly. it should not even be difficult to keep the knife person at bay. if he charges, his momentum connecting with a bat swing will steal tons of the strength he had behind a knife jab. if he doesnt charge, bat man can continually keep the knife person at bay.
people in medieval battles routinely took serious wounds that only became overtly apparent after the fighting, unless it was a major arterie or organ. This is not counterstrike, knifes dont easily SINK into people like jello
Article: discusses fatality rates of knife wounds
http://timlambert.org/1993/10/knives-00000/
One excerpt:
"95% confidence intervals for mortalities calculated from (Annals of Surgery 179 pp 639) are 1%-2% for abdominal stab wounds"
News Story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19570770/
"Police said the 40-year-old man walked into Delia's Place on Agnes Saturday night with three stab wounds in his chest."
It's not game over with a slash or stab to the tummy folks