No matter what level of baseball you do, you always seem to run across someone who questions your calls because "Everybody knows..." and there is no way you can convince them otherwise. Whether you're in your third decade of officiating, working towards the next rung of your career ladder or taking the Little League minor field for your first adventure in umpiring, you'll hear at least one of these before the season is over.
This invariably comes up on a swinging third strike that hits the batter's hands. The coach wants a foul ball instead of the strike three you (properly) called. If you waiver (even for an instant), he'll quickly 'correct' himself, tell you it's a hit batter and then tell little Johnny/Janey to go to first. You can try explaining to the coach that hands are body parts and a bat isn't. You might get lucky...but don't count on it. In order to resume a tournament game, I once handed the coach my rule book and told him that if he found that ruling in there, I'd give the player home plate. Needless to say, my rule book came back to me at the end of the game (with the pages well thumbed) but no request for the promised base award was made. [There are a couple of rules that address this situation but the quickest response is Rule 6.05(f).]
"The (batter-) runner is out...he turned the wrong way."
You'll still hear this echoed by high school varsity players when the first baseman tentatively asks, "Isn't he out 'cause he turned the wrong way?" I've heard some umpires refer to this philosophy as the "mandatory right turn" rule. The belief that, after overrunning first base, a batter-runner must turn to the right (into foul territory) in order to return to the base will probably never go away. Rule 7.08(c) exception and 7.08 (j) both state that a runner cannot be tagged out after overrunning or over-sliding first base if (s)he returns immediately to the base and makes no attempt to go to second. What constitutes "an attempt to go to second" is a judgment made by the umpire. While a player who feints towards second (hoping for the 'bad throw') could be considered making an attempt, the player who stops, turns around and strolls back to the bag can't. One reason the 'wrong turn' may be so prevalent is that many coaches tell their players to turn to the right (into foul territory) when returning. The rationale is to have no question of the runner's intent to return to first. Not a bad training tool as long as it is kept in its proper perspective.
"The batter's out...his foot touched the plate."
This is correct...almost...sometimes...under certain conditions. Confused? It's really quite simple, if you keep a few of things in mind. First, unless the ball is hit, the batter cannot be out. It's a sort of 'no harm, no foul' situation (pardon the pun). Second, Rule 6.06(a), which is the rule people are trying to cite, never mentions the plate. All it says is that a batter is out if (s)he hits a ball with one or both feet entirely outside the batter's box. Third, unlike most sports, the lines count in baseball. If young master John wears a size 12 cleat (and he's still growing!) he could easily have half his foot on the plate and still have his heel on the inside line of the batter's box (or even in the batter's box). If that's the case, he is still in the batter's box. If his foot is on the line it cannot be ENTIRELY outside of the batter's box, which is the requirement of Rule 6.06(a). The most common occurrence of a foot actually being entirely out of the box is when a player squares to bunt or has moved to the front of the box and steps forward to swing. Keep in mind that it's a BIG box, with BIG lines and a lot of the players have BIG feet. Unless the defensive coach starts complaining, don't go out of your way to look for 'offensive' feet. Fourth, if the defensive coach does start chirping about batters' feet, remind him that you won't see his pitcher's strikes if you're busy watching the batters' feet - his call!
