Bouncing Over the Bag and Going Foul
David Keller from Bloomfield, NJ asks:
A right handed batter hits a sharp ground ball angling towards third base. The ball takes 3 hops in fair territory and, after third hop, sails over the corner of the third base bag. The ball then contacts the ground, outside the foul line and beyond third base bag. Fair or foul?
A hit is ruled fair when a bounding ball headed to the outfield is on or over fair territory when it passes first or third base. Since the ball was over the corner of the base, which is in fair territory, when it passed it (or, in this case, when it went over it) and, since it had already touched the ground beforehand, it is a fair ball.
Answered by: Jonathan Bravo
Keywords: MLB Definitions of Terms: FAIR BALL