Help with baseball rules.

[Patrick425]

Can anybody help with this. Can any fielder, other than the catcher, position them selves in foul territory before the pitch is thrown? If not, can any part of them be in foul territory? Can they straddle the foul line? Can they be stepping on the foul line? Thanks for your help.

I would look it up in the rules, but I'm sure someone here knows the answer and can answer much faster than it would take me to delve through all the rules to find the part that mentions this.

[bball123h2]

4.03 When the ball is put in play at the start of, or during a game, all fielders other than the catcher shall be on fair territory.

(a) The catcher shall station himself directly back of the plate. He may leave his position at any time to catch a pitch or make a play except that when the batter is being given an intentional base on balls, the catcher must stand with both feet within the lines of the catcher's box until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand.

PENALTY: Balk.

(b) The pitcher, while in the act of delivering the ball to the batter, shall take his legal position;

© Except the pitcher and the catcher, any fielder may station himself anywhere in fair territory.

[Patrick425]

Thanks, I knew there was a rule regarding players having to be in fair territory.

The reason this question came up is because I coach a youth baseball team and the other coaches and I were discussing the positioning of the 1st baseman with covering first. I was teaching the right foot against the bag, similar to what most major leaguers do. However, I also no that at youth levels it's common to teach a straddling of the bag. My concern was that the first baseman could not position himself in foul territory. But what constitutes foul territory?What if his heals are on the line, or if one foot is in foul and the other is in fair territory?

[istanbultaye]

I think the answer to this would be determined by the ruling of whether a batted ball, touched by a defender straddling a foul line is considered a fair or foul ball.

[olliegjw]

I think the answer to this would be determined by the ruling of whether a batted ball, touched by a defender straddling a foul line is considered a fair or foul ball.

Makes no difference where the defender is when he touches a batted ball. What matters is where the ball itself is, when touched.