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The Umpire Corner

Lefty Slappers Out of the Box

Rule question? Get it answered here.

by Sam » Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:59 am

Pet peeve of mine, guys, so I apologize if you are offended. Watched the PGF 16U Championship game last night. Time and time and time again Beverly Bandits' slappers stepped in front of HP to the point where the announcers were fixated and laughing. Athletics coach brought it to the HP attention to no avail. It was obvious and not called. This is a violation that is seemingly never called, even after we request that it be watched.

Why? Please don't tell me that HP has too much to keep track of during the pitch. If that was the case, the call would belong to another umpire. There were 4 umpires working this game.
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by MTR » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:35 pm

There is the train of thought (not mine) that if the umpire is watching the feet, they cannot concentrate on the pitch.

Its a load of crap and a weak excuse. Don't get me wrong, it is not an easy call and often the first time can be missed simply because the umpire is caught off guard. However, some are easier than others because the batter steps into the path of the pitch which means the umpire cannot miss it. But be assured, the umpire is not going to guess on this one. If they have to think about it, they are not and should not call it. The violation will have to be obvious.


It does get called, at least in other areas. An acquaintance of mine from MN made this call in the USA 18U Gold in Clearwater and there wasn't a peep from anyone.
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by Chin Music » Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:16 pm

Sam, someone is listening to u.
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by swells9232 » Tue Feb 27, 2018 5:55 pm

I agree that there is too much “cheating” with the full foot outside of the box that is not called. A problem these girls are going to get is when they get to college with the new rule of any part of the foot outside of the box is out. Umpires, IMO are enforcing it too much and making mistakes when the foot is not out of the box, but on the line. So where is the happy medium? Full foot out? Pinky toe out? Somewhere between? This is a big issue right now in college...
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by Crabby_Bob » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:50 pm

swells9232 wrote:This is a big issue right now in college...


This is what the college coaches wanted. It's up to them to change it.
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by jonriv » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:08 pm

Saw it called yesterday and all I can say is “It’s about time!”
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by Hinky » Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:48 am

saw it called twice this weekend.
one of those times foot out of the box.
the other, half the foot cross the front line.
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by Sue Trubovitz, Turbo » Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:01 am

Monday 8am pgf national game
Explosion-denio vs.
So cal athletics- richardson

Lefty run and hits what looks like a base hit. But immediately home plate umpire waved his arms and pointed to a spot on the dirt in front of the plate. pretty loud commotion so I couldn't hear if he said something to.
Umpire called the batter out for stepping outside of the box....
Coach approaches the umpire about the call, umpire said batter stepped out of the box....
well interestingly enough there was no more Chalk Outlining the batter's box for either side...
so the coach replies
what batter's box?...
the umpire precedes to point out the cleat mark in front of the plate where the batter's foot had landed.
Batter was out!

In 3 games at pgf 18's seen it called 2x this week..so far.
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by MTR » Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:38 am

Sue Trubovitz, Turbo wrote:Monday 8am pgf national game
Explosion-denio vs.
So cal athletics- richardson

Lefty run and hits what looks like a base hit. But immediately home plate umpire waved his arms and pointed to a spot on the dirt in front of the plate. pretty loud commotion so I couldn't hear if he said something to.
Umpire called the batter out for stepping outside of the box....
Coach approaches the umpire about the call, umpire said batter stepped out of the box....
well interestingly enough there was no more Chalk Outlining the batter's box for either side...
so the coach replies
what batter's box?...
the umpire precedes to point out the cleat mark in front of the plate where the batter's foot had landed.
Batter was out!


What? The coach has to ask where the BB is? :)

However, pointing to cleat marks is not a good idea since the usual response is something along the line of, "those are from the previous batter" or some similar excuse
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