Is a batter out for hitting outside the batter’s box?
Hit the ball with a foot entirely outside the box and you're out. Stepping on the plate counts too (in high school, even a toe on it does). Everyone argues about it on a slap bunt, but almost no one can prove it.
How many times have you heard someone in the other dugout yell that the batter was out of the box? It usually happens on a bunt. The batter squares, steps toward the pitcher to get the ball down, and pushes it toward third. He beats it out.
Maybe he was out of the box, and maybe he wasn’t. Let me explain how the rule actually works…
The batter is out if he hits the ball, fair or foul, with one or both feet on the ground ENTIRELY outside the batter’s box. If any part of the foot is touching the line, he’s in. The lines are part of the box.
Stepping on home plate counts, since the plate is outside the box (there’s a gap between the plate and the box line). Under the pro rules and Little League, a foot flat on the plate, touching no chalk, is out. A foot on the plate and the line at the same time is still in.
High school is stricter. Any part of a foot touching home plate at contact is an out, even if the rest of it is on the chalk. So is a knee down outside the box.
There are a few things that many of us get wrong about this one. First, it only applies when he makes contact. If he swings and misses with a foot in the next county, nothing happens. It’s simply a strike.
It’s also a judgment call, and it has to be made at the instant of contact — not when he lands, and not when he starts running. After an inning or two, the lines are usually scuffed away, so the umpire is working from memory. As a result, it’s rarely called, even though you’ll hear it argued all the time.
If you teach the slap bunt, I’d teach it with the back foot planted, so the umpire never has a reason to guess.
Which rulebook? Official Baseball Rules 6.03(a)(1) and Little League 6.06(a): out if a foot is entirely outside the lines at the moment of contact. Any part of the foot on the line is in the box (OBR 5.04(b)(5)). NFHS 7-3-2 is stricter: out if either foot or a knee is touching the ground completely outside the box, or touching home plate, at contact. Swinging and missing is never a violation.
The batter swings and misses with his front foot planted on home plate. What’s the ruling?
Still have a question? Ask Coach Fungo.
“By the second inning the chalk is gone, and the umpire still has to picture where the line was.”
Is it an error if no one touches the ball?
A fly ball that drops between two fielders who didn't talk, or one lost in the sun or the lights, can be a hit or an error. The scorer decides whether ordinary effort would have made the out, and the book treats a mental mistake as a hit. The untouched error you'll see most is a routine grounder through the legs.
“I don't want a player charged with an error for a ball he never had a chance to catch.”
Fielder’s choice: does somebody have to be out?
No. A fielder's choice means the defense went after another runner instead of the batter, and if a throw to first would have gotten him, he doesn't get a hit even when every runner is safe.
“A fast runner who would have beaten the throw to first anyway still gets his hit.”
The rules quiz
Ten questions, two minutes. Would you have gotten the call right?
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