Slap hitter

Most of these young ladies have been taught to stride short. When they take stance in box with front foot on line or out of box, umpire should notice. Especially when fans are reminding him every pitch. Maybe thats why he doesn't make call, to not let fands call his game. I'm only concerned for pitcher and infielder safety, not whether he is right or wrong.

 

Here's a question for you. I don't know who's field that is, but that box looks short in the front and small. It may be the angle of the picture. It should be 4 feet in the front and 3 feet in the back for a 7 foot box. The way that picture looks, it looks like a 6 foot box with 3 in front and back. Maybe you could clarify, but that would be my argument for that batter being in the box, and it would be made before the game. But I've done that before and been told by the ump he was going by the box regardless of whether it was right or wrong. I've also seen them wipe out the lines and redraw with the bat.

 

Old Trick

An old baseball trick was to go and scratch out the line while "diggin in" Most umps do not catch this but there are a few thorough enough to catch it quickly.

 

IMO the pic above shows the young lady in the box. If ANY part of her foot is touching ANY part of the line, then by rule, she is in the box.

I think the problem of the correct dimensions of the box comes in is most umpires (and I think all parents...lol) don't know where to start measuring the box dimensions. Most umpires I have had this discussion with say the box is either measured from the back point of home plate and some have even said you measure from the side closet to the pitcher. However both point are incorrect. The measurement for the box should be made from the back corners of the plate, not the back point. As rams states, from the corner, the box should be measured 4 ft. to the front and 3 ft. to the back.

Again, many umpires don't know the measurements or where to start to measure. I hope this will be helpful the next time this issue comes up with the blue dude.

Speaking of the blue, last year in a NSA tournament, one of our slappers was called out for being out of the box. This was the first game of the day and there were no boxes. My player may have been out, but with no line, it was all umpire judgment. The problem I had with the young lady being called out was the fact how she was called out. The plate umpire didn't say anything when she hit the ball, and our player was safe on the play.

Then after the play, the coach on the other team started yelling she was out of the box and asked the plate umpire to get help from his partner. Well the plate umpire yells down to his buddy and asks was she out of the box, and he yells back YES SHE WAS, AND CALLED HER OUT!

You can imagine the umpire and I had a nice little discussion because the called he made first of all wasn't his and it certainly not something that can be appealed. The call was not reversed but believe it or not, I was allowed to keep coaching that game.

So I guess my point is for us coaches, knowledge of the rules is POWER. By knowing the rules and how they are applied may not get a call changed, but it will show the blue you are more than someone that just makes out a line up and sits on a bucket.

 

Safe to say....

If I were the coach in charge of chalking my own field, I could locate the batter's boxes anywhere I please as long as they remained between the dugouts? Thats a nice option to utilize my team's strengths and capitalize against the opposing pitcher's weaknesses.

Thanks for the insight.

 

Looks to me like an out either way.....

.....the batters left foot looks close enough to the front of the box that a "no call" would be appropriate. I'll take the texas leaguer popup that I see coming off her hands for an out though.

 

It has and will continue to be done. It doesn't take much scouting to determine how a minor shift of the box may be advantageous to the locals........a bit of home cookin........

 

Texas leaguer landed cleanly between short and left for a hit. It didn't go as high as it appears in the pic.

 

OK then I'll call her out....

...for stepping out of the box. LOL. Actually it doesn't appear to me anything wrong with this kids swing, box position, etc. and I'm happy that she dropped one in the hole. Good for her! The Fishman was wrong once again.

 

LOL, thanks for the support!