Jun/072
Legal or Not? You Decide!
The photo below shows Travis Hafner (Pronk) waiting for a pitch from BY Kim. Notice his back foot is clearly outside of the batters box. Fans all game were hollering and yelling at him to get back in the box. So I figured I would do some research and see what the rule is regarding the batters box.
Per Everything2…
The rules regarding the batter’s box are pretty simple:
- A pitcher cannot throw a pitch while the batter has any part of his body touching the ground outside the batter’s box;
- Once the pitcher steps to the rubber (puts both feet on the rubber of the pitching mound), the batter can only leave the batter’s box (and thus stop the pitch) by asking for a time out from the umpire.
- If the batter places a foot entirely outside of the batter’s box and hits the ball with his bat, he is out, and the ball is dead (see below.)
- If a batter strikes a ball and it hits him while he is still inside the batter’s box, it is a foul ball.
- A player is “inside the batter’s box” as long as one foot remains on the ground within the batter’s box.
So I ask you, does it clearly show his foot outside the box and why has this not been noticed before? I understand the rule says as long as one foot remains on the ground within the box he is inside the box. Clearly if he hits the ball in play he should be called out.
Whats the verdict? Am I looking too much into this? Am I just being a bitter Marlins fan on the losing end of a sloppy game?
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8:20 am on June 15th, 2007
I am an Indians fan so I won’t say that you are just a bitter Marlins fan. Hell, I was a bitter Indians fan in 1997.
Really, though, you should probably just give this one up. There are probably two or three guys like this on every team. I remember a blowup with Carl Everett and an umpire a couple years ago. I don’t think this is uncommon in the modern day.
10:03 am on June 16th, 2007
From that angle he looks out of the box and therefore following the above stated rules would be out if he hit the ball. But you can’t tell for sure due to the angle he may have his foot on part of the obliterated back line. If that is so then he is in the box. As a former catcher, it is up to him to point out to the umpire the batter is out of the box. I used to do it all the time. You just turn around and say hey give him a look he’s out of the box. You’d think with advances in technology we’d have something with staying power, besides lime, we could use to out line the box and foul lines.