[Tru_in_Blu]

I worked an ASA SP rec league last night. The field was lined and we even started with batters boxes that appeared to be roughly correct, i.e. 4' forward, 3' back, and 3' wide.

Second player of the game stepped out of the front of the batters box with his left foot and hit a fly ball to the outfield. I called dead ball and the batter out for contacting the ball with one foot completely out of the batters box.

We had a little discussion about it, but since the fly ball was caught, the batter didn't make too much of an issue of it.

Anyhoos, first game ended in about an hour as we were done by about 9 PM. We're waiting for one team to scrounge up their 9th player and didn't get started until 9:30. In the interim, I had some discussions with some of the players from the first game [and others] regarding the batters box.

I heard that the batters box on the field was a "little league" batters box. I heard that there shouldn't even be a batters box for ASA slow pitch. I heard that you could start outside the batters box prior to the pitch. I heard that you could actually [legally] hit the ball if one foot was completely out of the batters box. The last point was apparently confirmed as "legal" by another umpire at one of their games as there was much head-nodding and agreement. I heard that the batters box dimensions had been changed this year and when I asked when, I was told in April [maybe]. I heard that a lot of these guys play in NIT ASA tournaments and that's why they know these things.

My partner_du-jour concurred with all of these points and even offered that the slow pitch rule for the batter in the batters box was different than that of fast pitch, and perhaps that was why I was confused. I told him that I'd have to check on that one.

So I came home and scoured the rule book. I looked first at the 2009 changes and then Rule 2, the Playing Field. I didn't see any changes to the batters box dimensions. I logged onto the ASA website and looked at the rule clarifications and plays for 2009 which included the months of March, April, May, and June. I found no references to the dimension changes of the batters box.

Then I thoroughly read Rule 7 Section 3 and Section 6. I was particularly enamored with Section 6 The Batter Is Out.
D. When an entire foot is touching the ground completely outside the lines of the batters box at the time the ball makes contact with the bat.

I couldn't find that passage referenced by ump_du-jour on the differences between slow pitch and fast pitch, so perhaps I have an outdated edition of the 2009 Umpire Manual?

In the 2007 rule book, the batters box for slow pitch was temporarily widened from 3' to 4', but this change was later rescinded. And as far as I know, the dimensions are 3' wide by 7' long.

So, if I've missed this critical rule update, please advise and provide a reference so I can follow up. I feel terrible that I may have made a bad call on the batter, even though he would have ended up out anyway.