All;
Last night I was working a game in a well organized league. About 1000 were in paid attendance and all kinds of promotions were conducted just as you would find at many minor league ball parks. I was working with the biggest of the big dogs. He has done NCAA regionals and super regionals as recently as this month. Someday he will probably do a World Series.
NCAA rules (However, I did my research from OBR standpoint since I could find nothing in NCAA that directly bears on the problem. The BRD does not list any differences between OBR, NCAA, or FED on this issue.) I was on the bases and the super big dog was the PU.
The batter squared around to bunt and hit the ball. From my position in "C", here is what I saw. As he started towards first, the ball popped up from the ground and hit him in the stomach. I would say that he definitely had one foot in the box and a 50/50 chance that he had two in the box at the time that it hit him. He then tripped over the ball a couple of times as he ran towards first. I immediately called "Foul" and my partner called time. My partner called him out for interference!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course the offensive coach came out to "discuss" this call. At the time, I thought that all my partner had seen was the BR tripping over the ball and was prepared to have him come to me for help. (After the game, I learned that he had seen the contact with the BR's stomach and yet he still made the same call)
In the parking lot, my partner revealed his conversation with the coach. (The coach was previously convicted over an assault and battery charge involving one of our umpires, so at the time I was prepared for a heated argument and possible intervention on my part. The conviction was about six years ago.) The coach came down to the PU and said "He still had one foot in the box when it hit him!"
The PU said " Thank's for confirming what I saw. He must have both feet in the box or he is out for interference." The coach immediately turned around and went back to his position. Note: I doubt very much if he would have done that had I been the umpire. Big dogism has its priviledges.
In the parking lot, I said that I have always called it foul unless the BR is completely out of the box when contact is made with a batted ball.
The relevent text on this matter is contained in JEA under rule 6.05g. Any fair ball that strikes a BR causes the BR to be declared out. In or out of the batters box does not matter. Keep in mind that 80-90% of the batters box is in foul territory, but under the rule if a player was crowding the plate and forward in the box, a ball hit off of his left ankle (OWWWW) would cause him to be declared out. The left ankle, in this situation, would be in fair territory.
Now, no umpire that I know would call this an out. Furthermore, the JEA has a note to umpires from 1942 which strongly encourages them to call this foul.
Have I missed a rule here? Is there some other authoritative ruling that someone could point to with regards to players being hit by batted balls in the batters box? (one foot in, two feet in)
This ruling and others like it are part of a trend that I have seen in NCAA umpires recently. However, that discussion will be the subject of an article in the subscription section that I have been working on. This incident adds meat to the article. Consider this post a serious question as well as an advertisement for coming attractions.
BTW, had this been a junior umpire that I was working with, I would have chewed him out for making this call. However, with Big Dogs, I keep my mouth shut. Furthermore this was one more out on a muggy night. The big dog did nine full innings in 2:07. I'll take that anytime.
Peter
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