Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Little Jimmy
High school regional final today. I'm on the plate. 1st inning. Visiting team batter sets up toward the front of the box and strides out with her heel touching the line with each swing. After inning is over, home team coach questions (politely) the position of the batters foot. I say "she's close, but not quite out". He seems to accept it and we move on.
3rd inning. Same batter comes up. Same situation but now there's very little box left. She may be close but I'm not calling that one unless I'm positive. Coach (and home team fans) are now much more adament. Batter is still stepping in the same place as before. Still no call from me. After batter hits a double (with me being the bad guy of course) the next batter comes up. "Blue, where's the box so I don't step out?" I say "can't you see it?"(there's a whisp of white still on the ground). "Will you draw me a line?"the batter says. With a smile on my face I say "you don't need one" and set up behind the plate. She drew her own line, which was probably 2-3 inches short of the barely visable reminant of a box. Game continues with no real problems. Later in the game, the original "problem" batter comes back up and steps in an area where there is simply no box left. In my judgement, she's in the same place as always so no out of the box call. Home coach still complains. Game eventually ends.
My concern is with the request to "draw a line" for the one batter. There have been times where I have done this but in this case I thought I might be opening a can of worms where the home coach would be requesting a drawn line every time the "questionable" batter came up. What's your opinion about redrawing the box when there's not really a box there anymore?
|
That isn't correct. The box IS there, has been the entire game. It is just that the chalk/paint that was used has been erased. It is as much the coaches' and players' responsibility to know where it is as the umpire's. If the coach has a problem with it, he needs to make arrangements to have the field redressed sometime during a break in the game.