What Happened to "(legal or illegal)"?
 

So, while perusing my latest NCAA rule book about batting out of order, I noticed that the times when a BOO appeal is no longer recognized are when the defense reports the infraction after the first pitch to the next batter or after the pitcher and all infielders vacate their positions and leave fair territory. It struck me as odd that, like other rule sets, the words "(legal or illegal)", were missing from the part about that first pitch to the next batter.

So I looked at the previous version of the book (2014-2015), and those words are missing as well. Hmmm, what the heck? Then I looked back at the book before that one (2012-2013), and THERE THEY WERE!

So I went back and looked at the preface of the 2014-2015 book to see why they removed the words, and couldn't find anything. Not in the sections on Major Rule Changes, Editorial Changes, and not in the Common Practice Updates. I did a Google search to see if they were captured in an NCAA announcement. Nothing I could find. It's as if the words just didn't survive the printing process from one book to the next, and nobody noticed. Or maybe there is something, but I'm just not looking in the right place.

Any of you have any ideas? Is there an interpretation that says "a pitch" covers both legal pitches and illegal pitches when it comes to appeals? Or does an illegal pitch no longer affect the outcome of an appeal?

I have always thought the word "pitch" covers any pitch, regardless of legal, illegal, ball, strike, fast ball, slow pitch arc, uncaught, ....
The words you quote seem only to prevent idiots from arguing; like the extra words in the infield fly rule. :eek:
But then, rule books have never qualified as literature. :)

Perhaps. But quite often when words are added to or deleted from a rule book, the organization would say why they did that. If it is their intent that a pitch is a pitch is a pitch, as you surmise, then I would have expected that comment somewhere in the book's preface or in a correspondence covering changes.

(Legal or illegal) includes everything. Just like (Yellow or not yellow) would include every color. If it includes everything, the words are not really needed.