Are Batter's boxe's a thing of the Past?

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Two years ago at a tournament where they did not line the batters box, we faced a team where the slapper literally ran 4' in front of the plate while slapping.

I mentioned to the umpire that the batter was obviously out of "the box" when she hit the ball. He ignored me until the middle of the inning when he motioned me onto the field. He said that since there wasn't a box, he couldn't call the batter out. I told him that I understood the difficulty he faced without a batters box,and if it was in anyway close or semi close I would not have said a word. I then pointed out the footprint of the slapper 4' in front of the plate to show him how far the batter was in front of the plate when she hit the ball. He agreed that the batter foot landed there but he shrugged and repeated... without a box there is not much he could do. I said I understood and went back to the dugout.

In the dugout, I instructed my batter to go to the plate and stand so that her front foot stood on top of the footprint that I pointed out to the umpire. With her foot there and in a normal stance, her back foot was almost 2' in front of the plate. Before the first pitch, the umpire called time and motioned me out. He said "OK, I get it. Now, get your batter back in the box". He enforced the "obvious" after that point.

Without the box, I won't argue or even mention the marginal violations of "the batters box". It is the obvious violations that I feel should be enforced and to cite "no batter's box" is an excuse.

 

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ASA Rulebook, Rules Supplement, Paragraph 7. Batting Out of the Batter's Box:

"When there are no batter's box lines, good judgement should be used and the benefit of the doubt should go to the batter."

 

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Yep, "benefit of the doubt to the batter", just as I posted above.

And, again, the batter's box extends four feet in front of the plate. Four feet! The entire box is seven feet long. Most of the complaints I get about batters being out of the box are from folks who obviously don't know the size and placement of the box.

Chalked lines might eliminate some of the confusion for some of the people, but if the umpire knows his stuff- and gives the benefit of the doubt to the batter- this really shouldn't be much of a issue during a game.

 

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Bretman,

Maybe we are missing on semantic here. ?The front of the batter box is actually 3' 3 1/2" in front of the plate. ?The box is 7'x3'. ? The box extends forward 4' from the corner of 45 degree of the angle of home plate and 3' back from the 45 degree angle. ?The batters box extends 3' 3 1/2" from the "front" edge of the plate. ?A batter who lands 4' from the front edge of the plate is out of the box - unless she hit the ball before her foot landed outside of the box. (I use to build batter box templates)

 

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Way to go Johnies!!!
Glad someone knows his stuff!!
seen too many umpires measure from the wrong place and the wrong distance!!

 

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Johnnies,

Yes, you are correct on the batter's box size and measurement. To be precise, I guess I should of said that the box extends ALMOST four feet in front of home plate.

But the point of my post was not to give a precise measurement of the official box. Rather, I wanted to point out that foot four feet in front of the plate is not, as you put it, "obviously" out of the batter's box.

The batter's foot can be partially outside the box when hitting the ball. If any tiny portion of the foot is barely touching the chalk line of the box, even if the rest of the foot is outside the lines, the batter is still legal. The foot must be contacting the ground entirely outside the box and the pitch actually touched by the bat before you have an infraction. (And, if she does not contact the pitch, there is not even a penalty).

Your first post complained that the batter was "four feet" in front of the plate and "obviously" out of the box.

The batter's foot could very well be four feet in front of the plate and, if her shoe is about 8 inches long, could be still touching a small portion of the line.

With no line drawn, and a batter with an average-sized foot, you are now asking the umpire to make a call by estimating, within a couple of inches, the batter's foot placement at some arbitrary spot in the dirt. And you are asking him to do it in the split second it takes for the pitch to come in, while he is also focused on his priority on a pitch- the ball's relation to the strike zone, not the batter's foot.

Of course, all that also assumes that your estimate of "four feet" is accurate within an inch or two as you eyeballed the distance from your coaching position, far away from the plate.

My point was that a rough estimate of "four feet", taken in conjunction with the actual rule and a properly sized batter's box, is not "obviously" outside the box. Either you or the umpire could be off by a few tiny inches and the batter still be 100% legal.

As the rule book states- "with no lines drawn, benefit of the doubt to the batter". Given your description, I would likely extend that benefit to the batter in this situation.

 

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Last year we played our first spring break game down in Kentucky and they did a great job of prepping the field inlcuding doing the lines and all, but when we went out to meet with the umpires on the ground rules, I asked if they had forgotten to put down the batter's box and the umpire said "we don't do batter's boxes down here much ... we don't need them". So my daughter comes up in the first inning and her back foot is about even with home plate and the umpire very politely points out to her that she is out of the batter's box. I just had to laugh.

 

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Bretman, I guess with my past in building batter box frames it was a little more obvious to me than others. When I had my batter stand on the "spot" I mentioned before, it became obvious to the home plate umpire also. (Visual Clues).

My pet peeve (besides no box) is a 2' x 4' box some venues draw by guessing the box size. A box that size is useless yet it seem to be "enforce" in games. :

Nonetheless, when there is no box, I rarely complain with certain exception. (the bat hit my pitchers glove) ;D