Illegally batted ball... am I the only one...

[tibear]

whatever

[Leecedar]

First, to clarify what people have been asking about what I mean by 1" toward the batter's box...

If a right handed batter's foot is 12" long, and 11" of his left foot is directly between the pitcher's mound and home plate, that only leaves 1" of his left heel between home plate and the batter's box, not the 6" needed for any part of his foot to be in the batter's box.

And regarding whether or not he lifted his foot prior to hitting the ball... if his foot is on the ground completely out of the batter's box... and he doesn't put it back in, then you can't say he's in the batter's box. Otherwise, he could run wherever, down the 3rd base line, 1st base line, to the mound, and so long as he jumped in the air, and it's legal?

Sorry... since 99% of ALL hitters plant their front foot prior to hitting a ball, seeing if their foot is completely out of the box is a relatively easy call... if there's an awkward swing, it's not hard to see a big enough picture to glance at the batter's foot... most times.

And I do thank those of you who helped me out with letting me know the OBR regarding this... I do almost exclusively FED, LL and a ton of softball (I know, it's the dark side of the force on this board.) In all those except LL, touching the plate is included in the rule.

Lee

[Tim C]

To steal from a previous poster:

whatever

Regards,

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Leecedar

And regarding whether or not he lifted his foot prior to hitting the ball... if his foot is on the ground completely out of the batter's box... and he doesn't put it back in, then you can't say he's in the batter's box.

I don't have to say that he's in the box, or even see that he is. I will call a violation only if I see him hit the ball when one foot is not in the box. And in the vast, vast majority of cases, I will not see this.

Originally Posted by Leecedar

Sorry... since 99% of ALL hitters plant their front foot prior to hitting a ball, seeing if their foot is completely out of the box is a relatively easy call... if there's an awkward swing, it's not hard to see a big enough picture to glance at the batter's foot... most times.

You are inferring a violation, which is bad umpiring practice. Penalize only violations that you see, not what probably happened.

I have seen only one umpire that I admire call this, and that was a slap bunt by a LH batter who had both feet out of the box and was 5 feet toward the mound when he bunted an off-speed pitch that screwed up his (the batter's) timing. Granny could have called that one, which is why PU had to.

So I will not deny that I would call this, but none of the cases I've seen described in this (or the other) thread would merit the call from me, because I would not have seen it.

[UMP25]

Originally Posted by mbyron

I have seen only one umpire that I admire call this, and that was a slap bunt by a LH batter who had both feet out of the box and was 5 feet toward the mound when he bunted an off-speed pitch that screwed up his (the batter's) timing. Granny could have called that one, which is why PU had to.

And those are the situations where I call this. Believe it or not, I actually had a right-handed batter attempt to bunt on a pitch that was WAY outside--in the other batter's box. He quite literally jumped across the plate and smacked the ball (foul) when he was in the other batter's box. After I banged him out, I had to give the head coach an "A" for creative thinking when, in response to my explaining that he wasn't in the batter's box when he contacted the ball, the guy said, "But he was in the batter's box when he hit the ball, Randy. It doesn't specify which box you know."

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by UMP25

After I banged him out, I had to give the head coach an "A" for creative thinking when, in response to my explaining that he wasn't in the batter's box when he contacted the ball, the guy said, "But he was in the batter's box when he hit the ball, Randy. It doesn't specify which box you know."

I like it!

Of course, the batter would still be out, just from (b) instead of (a).

[RPatrino]

Whoa, it must be the off season. Where do we come up with these subjects?