The strike zone is 17' wide and from the batter knees to the arm pits ...
Addition:
I just wanted to add.. this is to be determined where the ball crosses the front of the plate, not where caught by the catcher or any other reference point
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The strikezone is a box in which pitches inside are called strikes and pitches outside are called balls. The dimensions of the box depend on the league or ages. The strikezone is sometimes from the knees to the letters of the jerseys and the spaces in between the plate and the batters box. Other times it is the shoulders to the mid thigh area and the black strip found on most plates. It just depends on what type of umpire you have and how long you want the game to be. Depending on the umpire, he may widen the strike zone, or make it smaller
17 inches (width of homeplate) x Knees to letters generally speaking. If you read the history of the Major League strike zone, it has varied. It has always been from the knees on the lower boundary, but the upper boundary has been from the belt to the armpits. Most recent ruling was halfway between the belt and armpits for the upper boundary.
As far as MLB goes, according to MLB Rule 2.00: "The Strike Zone is defined as that area over homeplate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball."
When a pitcher throws a ball over any part of home plate before the catcher catches the ball.