How many feet in the Box

[BretMan]

Now it's illegal to erase the line and you're called out.

Not true for most rule sets. High school is an exception. They do have a rule against intentionally erasing lines. But the penalty isn't an out. On the first offense it's a strike if an offensive player erases a line, or a ball if it's erased by a defensive player. A team warning is issued and a subsequent violation results in a ball/strike plus restriction to the bench of the player and head coach.

NCAA also prohibits erasing field lines. Besides those two, I'm not aware of any others that do.

 

[MTR]

Larry Ray tells people to have their slappers place the bat down with the knob even with the corner of the plate. Then add a little more than a foot and draw your own line. Since the bat is 32"+/- and the front of the box is supposed to be 4' in front of the corner of the plate, this works well.

Larry used tell his slappers to erase the line before they did this and actually draw a new line further out in order to gain a few inches advantage. Now it's illegal to erase the line and you're called out.

Comp is correct, Larry isn't even close.

Erasing the lines is only illegal in certain associations. Personally, I think it is a dumb rule since the lines are not relative to enforcement, never have been.

Once working a men's major, the first batter came up and started sweeping the lines with his foot. Catcher complained to me, "what are you going to do about it?" I said "encourage him to finish the job!"

The catcher gave me a real strange look and I told him, "If he wipes out the lines, he has no complaint when I call him out for hitting the ball while out of the box." That strange look turned into a big smile and the batter stopped.

BTW, do you honestly think an umpire is going to look down and see a line drawn by the batter and think she must be good? Drawing lines isn't exactly a great way to endear oneself to the umpire.

 

[shockcoach]

Not true for most rule sets. High school is an exception. They do have a rule against intentionally erasing lines. But the penalty isn't an out. On the first offense it's a strike if an offensive player erases a line, or a ball if it's erased by a defensive player. A team warning is issued and a subsequent violation results in a ball/strike plus restriction to the bench of the player and head coach.

NCAA also prohibits erasing field lines. Besides those two, I'm not aware of any others that do.

I should have been specific to the NCAA ruleset when I mentioned that you can't do this anymore. I inferred it when talking about Larry Ray who coaches at the collegiate level.

I do stand corrected in that it is not an out, it is a strike on the batter.