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[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by BretMan

It does seem like it would be simple enough to put a definition for being "out of the box" in the rule book for this play. The number of times this question and debate pops up serves to illustrate that the current rules leave this as an ill-defined grey area.

This year a definition was finally added to OBR. Apparently, somebody finally recognized the need to spell it out. It only took them about a hundred years to put something official in their rules...so maybe one of the softball associations will follow suit one of these days!

The following play is currently being discussed on another softball forum...

Batter squares to bunt. Pitch is bunted straight down into the plate and bounces straight up. The batter-runner begins her first step from the box. As her foot is in the air, not yet having touched down outside the box, the ball hits her foot directly over home plate. Umpire calls batter-runner out.

I guess no matter if you think having one foot or both feet on the ground outside the box is being "out of the box", this B/R hadn't met either of those standards.

By the standard offered by mbcrowder, I guess he would like an out here since the ball hit the batter outside the box and over fair territory.

My thinking is that since this is a legal position to bat the the ball, then it should not be an illegal position to be hit by the batted ball. I'd call it foul- and sell the crap out of it!

Well ... I don't "want" anything, and I see your point here, although I do have to wonder what convoluted running strategy the batter was using if her foot ended up over home plate after bunting, in the time it takes for a bunted ball to go straight down and straight up to, well, foot height. Doesn't seem realistic. seems that most bunts that hit the batter hit them in the chest (and usually within the confines of the batters box - after bunting, it would require great feats of superhuman strength to get OUT of the box before the ball could bounce straight down and then straight up.

But the two feet out standard will NEVER be met - people running very very rarely have two feet on the ground at all, and this would imply a BR who realizes she's about to be hit by the batted ball merely has to leap to avoid being called out.