Depends, I have used a fake strike to the balls, which puts their hands down and allows me to deliver a strike to their bridge of the nose/eye region. This causes pain, blurs their vision and waters their eyes. If you follow this with a vicious kick to the knee you can stroll away slowly.
For the head strike I prefer a palm strike to prevent broken/injured fingers.
“Other”
My training heavily emphasizes counters in one-on-one scenarios, so my preferred first move would be to deflect the incoming punch, trap his wrist/arm, get behind him, and pin him (with a lock, against a wall, on the ground–wherever is easiest). So I would be “striking” (sort of) at his wrist.
If I can’t get behind him, the deflection would likely be followed up with a slashing rigid-hand strike to the eyes on the recovery from the scissor-block. GargoyleWB makes salient points in favor of the Boo approach, but a slash is less likely to injure my own fingers than a jab.
Building upon Grestarian’s and Balance’s truly excellent insights about waiting to counter an actual assault.
The caveat here is that for me, by that point, screw pinning or restraining or finding loose debris to attack with. I personally would be attempting specifically to introduce my assailant’s head to some hard flat surface, rather abruptly. Failing that, a yank to get him (usually going to be a him) off-balance and no longer between me and the exit, whereupon I EXIT and find as many people to immerse myself in as possible. I can dream of my sweet kung-fu ninja baseball-bat revenge later after I’m safely away.
I have a little (very little) training in martial arts. While sparring, I have taken a shot to the groin while not wearing a cup.
Trust me when I tell you that no other shot will drop you as quickly or for as long as a shot to the nuts. And when you get back up…you’re pretty much done for the day.
What would ninjas need with a baseball bat?
Other.
I’ve never learned a martial art and I’ve never even been in a real fight. I think my odds of kicking/punching my way out of this are minimal regardless of where I aim.
What do I have in my favor? I’m a big guy and I did reasonably well in high school wrestling. I’d be surprised if I didn’t have 4 inches and 50 lbs advantage over a random assailant. So that’s my strategy: try to get in close and grapple. I’m even willing to take a punch while I’m closing in. Once I’ve got him down, I feel like I have a reasonable chance of getting enough control to bang his head on the ground, knee him in the nuts or whatever presents itself.
To play baseball. Duh!
I’d probably try to take them off their feet presuming they’re around my size or smaller. Maybe try a front face lock and slide the arm down to the windpipe. Of course I haven’t been in a situation where I needed to fight as an adult, so chances are I won’t.
Marine Corps LINE training. Get him to the ground and stomp some breathe-y parts.
Walk away with an explosion behind me.
“Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!”
While running would be my first advice, and my preference, it is unlikely that I will be able to outrun an average attacker once they’re close enough to engage. Therefore, for me, for various reasons, the best option is probably to immobilize the attacker long enough to assess the situation. At best, this will neutralize the threat; at worst, it will help me find a way to get a sufficient head start.
On one of the (very few) occasions I’ve had to deal with this in my adult life, my solution was to throw the assailant in a dumpster and depart while he was trying to extricate himself.
I said eyes, but for the same reason as posted for low kicks ,etc. If you feint to the head they will instinctively raise their hands to defend/block which lets me either deliver a side kick to the knee, or snap kick to the groin with more force than a blow from my hands could ever deliver.
I also concur with the assessment that an alleyway will have something nasty to fight back with if you have presence of mind.
What I would like to do is a flying kick to the throat, but I’ll probably just end up punching him in the face
No judgement from me - I’m just personally a much better runner than I am a fighter. 
Well…the Japanese use metal bats…
But ninjas were gone before they adopted America’s pastime…:mad:
–G?
9 mm round, center of mass, chest. If he moves again, one between the eyes.
Wheelchair, no reasonable expectation of escape or evasion.
Yeah, I’d probably have to say I would strike whatever gave me the greatest opportunity to connect, rather than going for a particular spot. Like, big weightlifter dude with puny legs who is in kind of a boxing stance? Side kick to that knee and run like hell. The guy ducks his head down for some reason? Rabbit punch and run like hell. He grabs my shirt? Either bust his elbow or sweep his leg, then run like hell.
Can’t vote, you didn’t have “any of the above”.
If it comes down to the nitty and the gritty, I’ll take the first target of opportunity.
Good man.
We were taught that if you’re cornered and somebody throws their arms around you, stomp on their instep, then lean into them (which isn’t expected) and drop straight down out of their grasp. And if you can slam the tip of their nose with the heel of your palm, you’ve pretty much got a good chance to run because they can’t see through the tears.
If they’ve grabbed you and you’re pulling away, but you can’t get away, once again move into them (slackening their hold) and kick knees and nuts.