Baseball question a sign that spring training is near

Today’s question:

Can you find out who gets all the loot generated by the ads on Super Bowl Sunday. It must be considerable. Where does it go? I’d like to know. Huh?

I’m sorry, but I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. We are coming up to spring training and I have a question I have always wondered about.

There are coaches’ boxes on the first and third base lines, but the coaches never seem to stay in them. They wander up and down the lines.

What are the rules regarding coaches’ boxes and are there penalties for not using them?

Thank you for this question. Thank you for reminding us, in these deep dreary days of hockey and basketball and figure skating, that in just a few short weeks baseball will be back. God will be in his heaven and all will be right with the world.

As for the coaches’ boxes, there are rules and then there is reality. The two are not always the same.

This is what Major League Baseball’s Rule 4.05(b) says: “Base coaches shall be limited to two in number and shall (1) be in team uniform, and (2) remain within the coach’s box at all times.”

That rule, however, comes with this comment: “... a coach shall not be considered out of the box unless the opposing manager complains, in which case the umpire shall strictly enforce the rule and require all coaches (on both teams) to remain in the coach’s box at all times.”

Further, it says: “It is also common practice for a coach who has a play at his base to leave the coach’s box to signal the player to slide, advance or return to a base. This may be allowed if the coach does not interfere with the play in any manner.”

It’s sort of like the rule about the batter staying in the box. There are rules and then there is reality.