FourthOut

Could be wrong here, but it seems like either runner would be out (assuming the ball hasn't passed F4 by the time it hits the runner). All the infield fly does is call the batter out, removing the force play. Runners can still be called out for interference, be doubled off if caught, and advance at their own peril if uncaught. Therefore, it serves to reason they can still be called out for being hit by a batted ball. There are also no special protections for runners standing on a base who are hit by a batted ball.

For the record, since people are talking about this topic again, we decided not to enforce either rules change at the umpires meeting. To my knowledge, the lightning rule never really came into play this season; our umpires, especially the younger guys, were pretty quick to suspend play. Of course, the league made two more rules changes, both for no apparent reason. First, they wrote their own definition of the infield fly rule so umpires can no longer rectify an uncalled infield fly. Second, they changed balks, including balk warnings, from a delayed to an immediate dead ball.

It's this one. Since most towns in our league don't assign through the state association anymore, there have been a lot of "patched" umpires who are 16 or 17 working both Majors and Minors games, and Minors umps can be as young as 12. On that note, I was working summer ball last year at a 3-field complex in town where one of the games had a 13-year-old ump working alone. It was extremely rainy, and I called my game when I saw standing water on the field. The guy working field 2 did the same thing. Meanwhile, the kid ump on field 3 kept playing. I went over and told him, "Remember, it's your job to pause or end the game. Usually, I end the game when I can see puddles of water on the field." "OK," he said, turned around, and kept playing. His dad was as confused as I was that he wasn't calling the game.

The only thing worse than being the umpire who has to drive back the next day to work the last inning and a half of a suspended game for free is being the assignor who has to find an ump willing to replace a guy who can't make it to the resumed game. As for the batter's box rule, it's gotta be pretty flagrant for me to call it under normal circumstances. I wouldn't say I'm looking at the batter's foot when he hits the ball; usually I'll notice a batter is way out of the box after contact takes place and then corroborate by looking for where the cleat marks are (on a dirt field). Still, to @JonnyCat's point, I can't ever see myself making the batter's box a point of emphasis, especially not when it comes to this rule. All good advice you gave me about enforcing the rule. For the record, this league is in Massachusetts. The umpire having the sole authority to suspend a game once it has started is one hill I'm willing to die on.

NFHS rules imply live ball, but if this is NFHS, wouldn't Rule 10-2-3l come into play here? The umpire in chief's duties include those listed in 10-2-1, 10-2-2 and the following... L. Rectify any situation in which an umpire's decision that was reversed has placed either team at a disadvantage. Here, the defensive team is at a disadvantage since they believed the runners were entitled to advance one base. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the proper means of rectifying this situation would be to send the runners back to their previous bases.

This is Cal Ripken. Majors is 50/70 with leading and stealing (divided into Majors A, with balks; and Majors B, with balk warnings only and a per inning run limit), Minors is 46/60 with no leading and a lot of special rules.

A local Cal Ripken league that I've umpired in for a few years (and also played in as a kid) just enacted two frankly asinine new rules. First, they changed the lightning policy so that now, if "the umpire or either head coach sees lightning," there is an automatic 15-minute delay. In case you didn't already notice the problem with this, now any coach can delay a game indefinitely, as long as they "see" lightning. Imagine you're at a CR field with no lights, and it's an evening game with dark clouds in the sky. You're the home coach, up 1 run in the top of the 5th (6 inning games), and the other team has RISP. You open up your phone, glance down at your weather radar, and see a wall of red about 30 minutes away. As you ponder whether they'll be able to finish the inning in time, the road team knocks in the tying run. "Blue, that's lightning back behind home plate." "I don't see any lightning, Keith." (knowing Keith, there probably hasn't even been thunder yet) "Well, I saw lightning. League rules, we have to stop play for 15 minutes." When we resume play 15 or so minutes later, it's almost impossible to finish the inning before the actual lightning starts. The subsequent deluge renders the field unplayable, ending the game, and the score reverts back to the previous inning, meaning the home team wins. The second moronic rule involves batters being out of the box. Last year during playoffs, I called a few kids from an especially vocal town out for being out of the box when they hit the ball. This year, the league wrote explicitly that batters who hit the ball while "any part of their body is touching outside of" the batter's box are out at the Majors level (Minors players receive a warning the first time they do it, which was the basis for the rule change). See the problem here? They accidentally (I assume) rewrote the definition of being out of the box so now, instead of the batter's foot having to be completely out of the box for him to be called out, he can be called out if any part of his foot is touching outside the box. Get ready for a flurry of angry managers and fans if umpires actually start to enforce this. Fortunately, I don't work a ton of games in this league anymore (I've sort of pivoted towards HS ball), but what would you do with these rules as an umpire? The UIC hasn't issued clarifications, and to make matters worse. We could make the coaches show proof of lightning (there are websites that do this). Do we even enforce the batter's box rule?