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Article: Baseball Rules Corner.(foul poles)
- Article from:
- Baseball Digest
- Article date:
- October 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Foul poles often the center of home run controversies
EVERY MAJOR LEAGUE BALL PARK has foul poles. Although they range in size and color, they serve the same purpose of helping umpires determine whether batted balls are fair or foul.
The term foul pole is a misnomer since they are in fair territory. Any batted ball that strikes the pole or its attached netting is a fair ball and is ruled a home run. This is something we learn in Rules 101 class. To carry it one step further, any ball that flies directly over a pole is ruled a home run as are batted balls that wrap around the pole in fair territory before landing in a section of seats in foul territory. ...