F3 foot in foul territory

[jicecone]

No. You are not wrong.

Time! Coaches, please instruct all your players to be in fair territory at the time of pitch. Any violations and each player must go directly to jail, they can not pass go and can not collect $200.00. Except for you Mr. Catcher, your job is to stay here and protect my butt from getting hit. Play on!

[umpjim]

Originally Posted by jicecone

No. You are not wrong.

Time! Coaches, please instruct all your players to be in fair territory at the time of pitch. Any violations and each player must go directly to jail, they can not pass go and can not collect $200.00. Except for you Mr. Catcher, your job is to stay here and protect my butt from getting hit. Play on!

Interestingly, the old wording has changed in this year's MLBUM (retyped so I abbreviated some of the words):

"OBR rule 4.03 provides that when the ball is put in play at the start of or during a game, all fielders other than the catcher shall be on fair territory. In particular, when holding a runner on 1B, F3 shall position himself with both feet in fair territory. There is no penalty specified for violation other than F3 shall be instructed to keep both feet in fair territory if brought to the attention of the umpire, or-if blatant or recurring violations-upon immediate direction of the umpire. If a player, after so directed by the umpire, blatantly refuses to comply, the player is subject to ejection."

Don't know exactly what nuance they wanted to change.

[bluehair]

And don't ya love the coaches that believe in the myth that the penalty for 4.03(a) "catcher's balk" applies to 4.03. "No, coach, F3's foot in foul territory was not a balk."

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by bluehair

And don't ya love the coaches that believe in the myth that the penalty for 4.03(a) "catcher's balk" applies to 4.03. "No, coach, F3's foot in foul territory was not a balk."

If I had a nickel for every coach who knew the phrase "catcher's balk" at all, I'd have ... a nickel.

[Ump29]

To begin with I am only familiar with OBR. But if you read the section almost quoted above by umpjim , the rule requires all players except F2 to be in fair territory when time is called in , not at time of pitch. There is a difference.

[kylejt]

What possible advantage is F3 getting by having a foot in foul territory? (None, of course).

So, don't worry about it.

If a coach wishes to make an issue of it, feel free to start inspecting his players uniforms for uniformity. Oh, and that coaches box just got a big wall drawn around it, too.

The MLBUM throws a lot of words to say "Don't worry about it".

[Publius]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

If I had a nickel for every coach who knew the phrase "catcher's balk" at all, I'd have ... a nickel.

If you had a nickel for every umpire who thinks he knows what the 'catcher's balk' describes, but really doesn't, you'd have several thousand dollars.

[bluehair]

Originally Posted by Publius

If you had a nickel for every umpire who thinks he knows what the 'catcher's balk' describes, but really doesn't, you'd have several thousand dollars.

What umpire doesn't have the imagination to figure out that it describes 4.03(a)...the only way F2 can cause a balk...he'd should still be nickel-less.

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by bluehair

What umpire doesn't have the imagination to figure out that it describes 4.03(a)...the only way F2 can cause a balk...he'd should still be nickel-less.

It's not the only way - see 7.07.

[Publius]

Originally Posted by bluehair

What umpire doesn't have the imagination to figure out that it describes 4.03(a)...the only way F2 can cause a balk...he'd should still be nickel-less.

You just demonstrated my point.

In 4.03(a), the pitcher has committed a balk. Whether the catcher "caused" it is immaterial to the fact that the infraction was committed by the pitcher

7.07 is the so-called "catcher's balk", wherein the pitcher has not committed a balk, but is charged with one anyway due to illegal action by the catcher.

Five cents, please.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Publius

If you had a nickel for every umpire who thinks he knows what the 'catcher's balk' describes, but really doesn't, you'd have several thousand dollars.

True!

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by jicecone

No. You are not wrong.

Time! Coaches, please instruct all your players to be in fair territory at the time of pitch. Any violations and each player must go directly to jail, they can not pass go and can not collect $200.00. Except for you Mr. Catcher, your job is to stay here and protect my butt from getting hit. Play on!

Except that NFHS Baseball Rules allow for a defensive player other than the Catcher to have one foot in Foul Territory at the Time of the Pitch.

MTD, Sr.

[Dave Reed]

Well, if we're going to describe FED rules, if the fielder doesn't have one foot in fair territory at the time of the pitch, it is an illegal pitch (See 1-1-4).

[jicecone]

Originally Posted by Dave Reed

Well, if we're going to describe FED rules, if the fielder doesn't have one foot in fair territory at the time of the pitch, it is an illegal pitch (See 1-1-4).

So that's why I sometimes see 8 players lined up along the foul line. I was wondering about that.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Dave Reed

Well, if we're going to describe FED rules, if the fielder doesn't have one foot in fair territory at the time of the pitch, it is an illegal pitch (See 1-1-4).

True, but (nearly) impossible to call in 2-man. If you see it before the pitch, you fix it. At the TOP, no umpire is looking at F3's feet.