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The pitcher's plate is 24 inches wide, the inside lines of the batter's box are 29 inches apart (if marked correctly). Given that the front edge of the batter's box is about 40 feet from the pitcher's plate this means that the pitcher's lane is only about 1 inch wider at the circle end than at the pitcher's plate. If it is obviously wider then it is marked incorrectly (possibly because the batter's box is marked wrong).
The wording of 10.4.1 was changed to coincide with the pitcher's lane. I believe that the pitcher's lane was added to the field markings because of the many complaints of illegal pitches not being called and because the complaints were true a large percentage of the time.
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