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FAQ

FAQ of Teeball Rules

What is the call when a batter has 2 strikes against them and then hits a ball which lands in foul territory?

This confuses many people because in baseball and softball a player can hit as many balls into foul territory as they like. Not so in Teeball. The rule is pretty straight forward really. Rule 13.2 states

The batter is out after three strikes. A strike is called against the batter:

a)       If the batter hits a foul ball

And Rule 13.1 defines a foul ball as

 A batted ball which:

a)      First lands in any foul territory.

b)      First touches a fielder or umpire whilst in or over foul territory.

So unfortunately, no matter how the first two strikes are recorded against the batter, if in their 3rd attempt to hit the ball the ball lands in foul territory the batter is out*.

* Note: Local Club Rules Rule 19 state in our youngest age division that batters cannot strike out but are allowed unlimited attempts to put the ball into play.

 

The runner had not reached the half-way point between bases when ‘TIME’ was called, should they be allowed to continue or be sent back? (or When should I call ‘TIME’?)

Time should be called when (1) “the ball is held by any player in an infield position” and (2) “all runners are in close proximity to a base”.   There are actually three parts to this. Firstly, the ball is held means in a fielder’s hand or mitt and in control – not on the ground near a fielder, not in flight or being juggled.  The ball should not be held above the head to indicate no further play; Coaches shoul be encoraging players to hold the ball in their mitt in front of the body if they do not intend to throw the ball.
In an infield position means where an infielder would normally field. This does not mean ‘in the diamond’. Teeball infield - FAQ
From the diagram you can see that some infielders can field up to about 10 m outside the diamond itself and all the infielders would field across to the Dead Ball line.  Therefore the ‘infield area’ would probably fall roughly where the red line is. For 7s and Under we find that the outfield generally stand very close to the diamond (they don’t want to miss out on anything) so the ‘infield area’ would be within 2-3 m of the diamond itself. As the age of the players increases so too would distance considered an ‘infield area’.  Similarly if the infield is fielding very deep (a long way out) then the ‘infield area’ would also move out. A good idea is to discuss with your coaches before the game where you consider the ‘infield area’ to be. The final part of this is all runners are in close proximity to a base and this is the hard part – getting all the runners in close proximity to a base each, especially when you have a really slow runner followed by a really fast runner. Proximity is considered roughly 3 paces either before or after the base. So again, ‘proximity’ is going to be much closer for a 7s team than for a 12s team because of their shorter legs. So when you, as the umpire, determine that all runners are within about 3 paces of a base, the ball is held securely and is in an infield position you can call ‘time’. By the time you make this decision, make the call and the call is heard and processed by the players a runner may have ended up closer to the half-way point between bases than the base itself or the fielder may have actually thrown the ball. Too bad. Runners go back and the throw never happened.

What is suicide running? (Rule 17.14)

Suicide running is where the runner moves to the next base in order to draw an error from the fielding team but it can be dangerous and can cause injury to players. Its a touchy subject as everyone has a different interpretation on this one. It is up to the umpire to monitor this and it becomes a judgment decision so what the umpire says goes. To try to simplify it:  Imagine the situation in a Major League Baseball game – would you run to the next base and have a reasonable chance of making it safely? If the answer is no and you go anyway then that is suicide running. Players (and base coaches) should advance a base assuming that the throw will be good and the catch will be good; if they run assuming that there will be an error on either the throw or the catch that is suicide running.  It is definitely suicide running if the ball is in front of the runner (e.g. ball held by shortstop and the runner attempts to run from 1st to 2nd base hoping the fielder will forget to tag).

The runner did not run in a straight line to the next base. Should I call them out?

A runner is out if they “deviate from the running line they are taking in order to avoid being tagged” (Rule 17.16). There are a couple of considerations here. Firstly, the running line does not necessarily mean the direct lines marked on the field between bases. If a player is running 2 or more bases they generally run in a slight arc around the bases so as long as they don’t obviously deviate from this arc they should be allowed to run slightly off the direct line between bases. The second consideration is why did the player deviate from their running line? If it was to avoid being tagged by a fielder in possession of the ball then certainly the runner should be called out. If, however, the fielder did not have the ball then the runner is entitled to go around the fielder. In fact, in many instances the runner may have to go around the fielder to avoid being called out for interference (Rule 18).

When do I call interference and when do I call obstruction?

The age-old question and no matter what call you make one of the teams/coaches is not going to be happy. I would suggest you consult with your fellow umpire before making this call so you both have the same understanding and interpretation. Interference (Rule 18) is when a runner “interferes with a fielder whilst in the act of fielding a...ball” while obstruction (Rule 20) is when a fielder who “whilst not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner”.   The common phrase here is ‘in the act of fielding the ball’. So what is ‘in the act of fielding the ball’? This means that the fielder can be nowhere else in order to take possession of the ball. It does not mean running towards the area where the ball is going to be, that is the fielder’s preparation. The ball and fielder need to be in very close proximity to each other for it to be considered ‘in the act’.Now we have this sorted we can go back to our original question: interference or obstruction? Did the fielder have possession of the ball or were they ‘in the act of fielding’? If yes then the call is interference, if not then the call is obstruction.

How far does the bat need to travel to be considered a thrown bat?

Rule 16.8 defines a thrown bat as one that is “disposed of in a dangerous manner.  (It is considered dangerous when the bat is disposed of in a way that would allow it to make contact with another person.)” This does not mean the bat needs to travel a great distance in order to potentially cause danger to others. Many players release the bat at the end of their swing causing it to hit the ground, often not very far from the batter themselves but sometimes with quite a degree of force. What would happen if the batter flattened out their swing a little and released the bat in the same way? How far would the bat travel then?  Could it end up in a dugout, possibly hitting a child in the face?  So a thrown bat is any bat which is released in a way that it could possibly hit someone.  It is not considered throwing the bat if the bat is dropped.  Coaches should be encouraging players to take a few paces towards 1st base and dropping the bat before the half-way point (any further and they are out – Rule 16.10). In addition to the official rules, our Local Club Rule 20 states that if the bat is disposed in a manner where it lands in either of the batting boxes at the catchers feet it is considered a thrown bat and the batter should be given out.  This rule was established as many bats were seen to be dropped  in this area (remember, dropped bats are OK), just as the catcher was moving forward to prepare to receive a batted ball and resulting in the potential for the catcher to either be hit on the lower leg/foot by the dropped bat or to trip over it.  The Club considered that disposing of the bat in this way “would allow it to make contact with another person” and so fell into the definition of a thrown bat.

The batter’s toe was touching the line of the batting box when he went to hit the ball. Is this batting out of the box?

Batting out of the box is when “at the time of contact either foot is completely outside the batting box” (Rule 16.6). Rule14a states that the line is considered in. So if either foot is touching the line, even if it is only just, the foot is not completely outside so it is a fair hit.  This can be a bit contentious sometimes when the player has their foot just on/outside the back of the box – the Coaches in the dugouts have a perfect line of site while you, the Umpire, need to look over their foot to see if they are still in contact. The other consideration here is ‘at the time of contact’. This is when the bat actually hits the the ball, not when the player settles themselves in the box or even as you call ‘batter up’ or even ‘play ball’.   The back foot needs to be outside or not in contact with the line at all at the time the ball is hit.

The batter moved his back foot just before he hit the ball but it only moved about an inch. Should I have called a strike?

A strike is called on a batter for back foot movement (Rule 13.2 (e)) and Rule 16.4 defines back foot movement as “From the call ‘Play Ball’ the batter is not permitted to reposition the back foot such that in the umpires opinion the ball will be hit in an appreciably different direction”. It is generally accepted that if a player stands square-on to the tee with the ball in the centre of the body the ball will be hit (all things being equal) towards pitcher; if they stand behind the tee so that the ball is in nearer the left side of the body (for a right-handed batter) the ball will be hit toward left field. Similarly if they stand in front of the tee so that the ball is nearer the right side of the body the ball will tend toward right field. So if, in your opinion, the movement of that back foot was enough to change the direction the ball would be hit (e.g. from left field to centre field) then a strike should be called. For most players this would be movement of about 20 cm, give or take, so back foot movement of a couple of centimetres is not really going to appreciably change the direction in which the ball is hit – it’s a bad habit and the Coach should be working on this but it should not be called a strike.

When the ball crossed the deadball line the runner going to 3rd base was still 3 steps away from the base but the runner behind them had already touched 2nd base. Where should the runners end up?

The dead-ball penalty (Rule 17.3) awards the runner “the next base from where they were when any thrown ball crosses the Dead Ball Line”.   The rule also states that “A base is not considered crossed til it has been touched.”  So at the time the ball crosses the dead ball line, if a runner has not yet touched the base they should stay at that base and not advance – even if they are less than half a pace short of touching the base. When awarding extra bases work from the lead runner and allocate bases accordingly.  The runner going to 3rd has still not touched the base so must stay at 3rd. The runner who has already touched 2nd base must go back because you can only have one runner on each base. This is unfortunate for the batting team but they are penalised in this only because their runner was slow.

The Scorebook has batters in a different order. Is the batter who came up to bat out-of-turn out?

The batting order (Rule 16.2) states that

a.      “A player’ position in the batting order is fixed when they have completed their turn at bat.

b.      Once all listed players have batted, no names can be added to the line-up, except in the case of substitution (Rule 21.2)

So it would normally be the team’s Scorers who write the players names in the scorebook in the batting order as they come up to bat for the first time. However, in many instances and to make the start of the game easier for all the Coach or Manager may have already completed this information for you or will give you their planned batting order at the beginning of the game. However up until every person on the team has had a turn at bat the batting line-up may change at any time. It is only once a batter has had their turn at batting is their spot in the batting line up is fixed.

Only once everyone has had a turn and a different batter comes up compared to what has been written in the scorebook does Rule 16.3 come into play. This rule can get tricky the longer it takes for anyone to realise what has happened. The rule states that:

a.          When a batter is found batting out of turn, the umpire shall call time, nullify all play, including outs (unless it is the third out) which took place whilst the improper batter was at bat by returning all runners to the bases where they were before the ball was hit by the improper batter. The proper batter then takes their turn at bat.

b.         The rule shall apply from “Play Ball” for the improper batter at bat to “Play Ball” for the next batter to bat.

c.          The improper batter becomes a legalised batter when “Play Ball” has been called for the next batter to bat. The next batter is then the next named batter after the [now] legalised improper batter. This means that, unless and until there has been a 3rd out made during the wrong batters turn at bat or the batter after the wrong batter has had at least one swing at the ball everything can be fixed – even if the wrong batter has actually reached a base or was put out somehow (i.e. 3 strikes, caught out, thrown bat, put out running to a base).   We send everyone back to where they were before the wrong batter came up to bat, we send in the correct batter to have a go and pretend as though nothing untoward has happened.   The only time the incorrect batter is called out is if they are put out as the 3rd out of the innings.

The outfielders keep moving after I have called “Batter Up”. Are they allowed to do this?

In a nutshell – yes. Play commences (Rule 10)

When the batter is settled in the batting box, the umpire will call “Batter Up” then “Play Ball” for each batter and after every strike, foul, dead ball or when “Time” has been called.

a.      The Umpire shall not call: “Play Ball” until all runners are in contact with their bases. [and]

b.      All fielders are reasonably settled.

The call “Batter Up” allows the batter to settle into the batting box and the fielding team to, fairly quickly, get into position ready to receive any hit ball.   Now once “Play Ball” has been called the batter is unable to move their back foot to change the direction of the ball (Rule 16.6). However many batters try to trick the fielding team by lining up to hit the ball in one direction (e.g. towards left field) and then, once the umpire calls “Batter Up” they quickly change direction (e.g. towards right field) ready for an almost-immediate call of “Play Ball”. In this instance the fielding team should be given the opportunity to quickly reposition themselves for the new direction of the anticipated hit before the call of “Play Ball”.  Now, when it comes to the infield this isn’t a big change but in the outfield it could be quite a distance the fielders need to cover to get into position – and they need to do it quickly so they need to run. The call of “Play Ball” should be delayed ever so slightly determine if the fielding team is going to adjust to the new anticipated batting direction and allow them the opportunity to become “reasonably settled” again.

So what is reasonably settled?   It does not mean set in concrete. Fielders should be able to move around if they need to – walking in, out, sideways, moving their feet ready to run for that ball if it comes in their direction. In the above scenario where the batter suddenly changes the proposed direction of their hit after the call of “Batter Up” and the fielding team decide do not move to their new position, or do not move quickly by all means call “Play Ball”.