Batter's box

[collinb]

If I use a magnifying glass on page 11 of the NFHS rule book I can see that the batter's box is suppose to be 3 ft. by 7ft.
I see high schools that appear to be taking liberty to shrink that box down considerable when marking their field.
In ASA summer travel leagues we are lucky to see any box at all marked on the field.
Do I use the markings supplied by the home team or use my judgement based on markins or lack of?

[whiskers_ump]

I am found over the years, that being out of the batters
box is probably the least violated rule there is. However,
I agree, most High Schools do not properly mark the boxes.
Around here if marked incorrectly umpires normally just
rub out the short front line anyway. Using your judgement
and expreience usually works for batter box violations.

[Steve M]

I agree with the short blue guy with the white beard.....rofl Haven't watched the smurfs for at least 10 years when I'd watch them with the kid.

I've had a number of times when the box was off enough that we needed to erase it. It usually happens when the folks lining the field "know exactly what they're doing" and alomst never happens when they use a form to trace it in. In ASA ball, if this happens, there's no chance of getting the lines redrawn. In high school, the chances are much better but still not too likely to happen.

When this happens, PU needs to make sure that each team knows PU is watching for painfully obviously out of the box conditions and is not going to be too picky over something close.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Too many schools look at it this way: Baseball, softball, guys, girls, same game, different ball, we only need to by one template for a batter's box and, of course, the guys win this one every time.