Foul or Out?

[BretMan]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

BretMan & Greymule,

Who cares about the OBR?

Me and Greymule? C'mon, Mike. I know you're probably just being flippant for flippancy's sake.

I tried to make it clear that I only mentioned OBR as an example of how one sport that is strikingly similar to softball and has a strikingly similar rule for this strikingly similar play might recognize that one element of this rule could be better defined for the sake of all game participants. Why can't we draw an analogy from a sport that shares many identical rules with softball, that softball was based upon from its inception and from which softball copied many of its original rules verbatim?

If the softball rules were more explicit on what constitutes a batter being in or out of the box on this play, then we wouldn't be having this discusion. But they don't, and considering how many times I've seen this question raised, that lack of a definition does seem to cause some confusion.

So let me rephrase this: I wish that the softball rules would publish a definte interpretation of when a batter is either in or out of the batter's box when struck by his own fair batted ball. And they should come up with a definition that is totally independent of what any other similar sport might or might not think about it!

By the way...I really don't like the rule that OBR came up with! It describes a batter being in the box after hitting the ball as the same position he is required to be in prior to the pitch (both feet entirely inside the box). Why not make it the same as the batter's legal position when contacting the pitch with the bat (foot may be extended beyond the lines as long as it's touching the lines and not entirely outside the box).

It seems counter-intuitive to say that the batter's position is legally in the box when hitting the ball, but if the ball then hits he's out of the box in that exact same position!