Batter's Box question

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by Umpire2014

Yeah had a coach go ape..... This weekend claiming that if it didnt leave the batter's box it was a foul.

Not surprising from a coach.

Almost all rule sets that I know of have a Definitions section, and every one of them provides a definition of Fair and Foul territory. Straight OBR (pro rules) says:

FAIR TERRITORY is that part of the playing field within, and including the first base and third base lines, from home base to the bottom of the playing field fence and perpendicularly upwards. All foul lines are in fair territory.

FOUL TERRITORY is that part of the playing field outside the first and third base lines extended to the fence and perpendicularly upwards.

And there's also the definition of a Foul Ball:

A FOUL BALL is a batted ball that settles on foul territory between home and first base, or between home and third base, or that bounds past first or third base on or over foul territory, or that first falls on foul territory beyond first or third base, or that, while on or over foul territory, touches the person of an umpire or player, or any object foreign to the natural ground.

Nope, nothing in there that says that a batted ball in the batter's box is Foul.

The reason why we call Foul when a batter is hit with his batted ball while in the box is because it's just too difficult to determine if he and the ball were in Fair or Foul territory when it hit him. Plus, it would be a bit unrealistic to expect him to keep from getting hit by a Fair batted ball while he's still in the box. So we rule Foul in those cases.