" Hey blue, she's outta the box.........uh, what box?

[flash277]

Worked a field today with no batting boxes and the plate was a bit forward of the foul lines, terrible setup. As we all know, umpires aren't responsible for chalking the field, so we played on it. A lefty batter came up and her right foot was way out towards first stepping on the foul line. Coach was complaining she's outta the box, but I had to let it go, since you know the other coach would say "what box is she out of" if there was a proper box, she'd probably be stepping out of it, but no box is no box. Mind you I wouldn't let her stand 5 feet in front of the plate, but in this case I couldn't say anything. What day you?

 

[EdLovrich]

proper 'no-call'. If HC makes a big enough deal about it, you can always scratch in a box, but make it very over-size

 

[Strike2]

The front part of the box is 4' from mid-plate. If you wouldn't let a batter stand 5' in front of the plate, why would you allow someone to set up "way out towards first stepping on the foul line"? If a player is placing a foot well outside where you understand a drawn box to be, I don't understand why you wouldn't call that. Like so many other things an umpire decides, it's a judgement call. If a coach complains, you explain your reasoning and then send him back to his dugout. There's nothing he can do about it.

 

[radness]

there are no lines floating around designating the strike zone area either.
Yet that gets called

 

[marriard]

The front part of the box is 4' from mid-plate. If you wouldn't let a batter stand 5' in front of the plate, why would you allow someone to set up "way out towards first stepping on the foul line"? If a player is placing a foot well outside where you understand a drawn box to be, I don't understand why you wouldn't call that. Like so many other things an umpire decides, it's a judgement call. If a coach complains, you explain your reasoning and then send him back to his dugout. There's nothing he can do about it.

Yes. The lines exist, whether they are visible or not.
Calling a player out of the box requires you to be 100% sure they are COMPLETELY out of the box at contact (unless NCAA rules of course)

When the lines have been removed/blurred/etc, this changes how you call it, because you no longer have any line to see, so being certain is much harder. So to be 100% sure they are truly out of the box, it has to be very obvious - like stepping in front of the plate for example.

 

[wconn1979]

There is a batters box and its up to you to judge if she is in it or not, just like the strike zone.

 

[YoungBuck]

Not your job to chalk the field.

 

[Bullseye]

2020 no chalk at all. No issues with blues decisions. These things are only problems because people make them so. Make the call.