slap bunt

Question
Thank you in advance.
Many times I have seen a slap bunter make contact with the ball
while the batter has clearly stepped out of the the batters box.
Is this only acceptable when they use a cross over step, or does the cross over provide the batter a grey area of the box?

Answer
Randy,

The short answer is, if the batter makes any contact with the ball with a foot completely out of the batters box, they are out.  The foot isn't out of the box until it touches the ground outside of the box.  Note that the lines marking the box are inside the box.

In reality, a slapper's lead foot hits the ground almost simultaneously with the bat hitting the ball.  It has to be very obvious to the umpire before you get this call.  If the batters box has been erased, the umpire will usually give even more leeway to the batter.

The type of footwork doesn't have any relationship to the call.  Also there isn't an "grey" area in the rule.  The "grey" area comes up in the enforcement of the rule.

Tom