Bunt hits batter!!!

[shickenbottom]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread and interpretation

There are two types of rule interps that may have been used in the situation that has been bantered about.

1) If the batter has one foot completely outside the box and hits the ball, the ball is dead, the batter is out - Illegally batted ball.

2) The ball was bunted and the batter was in the process of exiting the batters box (one foot in the box, one foot out). The ball is dead, and general concensus and interpretation treast this as a foul ball. This is generally unintentional as the batter is trying to move out of the box and the ball come up from the ground almost immediatly.

It sounds like the umpires confused and mingled their interpretations. Both require judgement. The problem came about because it was initially ruled foul, then changed to illegally batted ball after a discussion between the officials.

From a mechanics standpoint, if the field umpire is sure of thier call, they can and should make the foul call from out in the field. This generally occurs when the UIC may be screened from the action because of the batter & catcher moving into the UIC line of sight.

The illegally batted ball should belong to the plate umpire, because the field umpire has a reduced to almost non-existent perspective on where the batters feet are with respect to the batters box and the moment the ball is hit.