Is the ball fair or foul

[Guest Bob]

Is the ball fair or foul? The first baseman is tracking a pop fly on the first base line. His feet are in the field of play. The flight or position of the ball indicate that it would be foul if it dropped and hit the ground. The first baseman attempts to catch the ball with his feet in the field of play, the ball tips his glove on the way to the ground and lands in foul territory. If the ball was not touched by the fielder the ball would have landed foul. Is it foul or fair. Also if one of the fielder's feet was in foul ground what would the call be. Regards

[kylehutson]

Feet position make no difference. It's whether or not the ball is foul at the moment the ball is touched. 99.99%+ of the time, that will be what it would have done had it not been touched, but one could imagine a scenario where the ball is curving relative to the base line, where that wouldn't be the case (but very unlikely on a pop fly).

[maven]

The fielder's feet don't matter. Where it would have landed if untouched doesn't matter.

When a fly ball is touched by a fielder, the position of the BALL determines fair/foul. If completely over foul ground when touched, it is a foul ball. If any part of the ball is over fair territory, it's a fair ball.

2 hours ago, kylehutson said:

99.99%+ of the time, that will be what it would have done had it not been touched, but one could imagine a scenario where the ball is curving relative to the base line, where that wouldn't be the case (but very unlikely on a pop fly).

I recommend not thinking of it this way. A pop-up between HP and 1B that is misplayed by F3 and lands foul untouched, but then spins back into fair and stops, is a FAIR ball, even though it landed untouched in foul ground. Landing fair or foul between HP and 1B/3B is nothing (yet).

[Aging_Arbiter]

So we found the .01%..........

[Stk004]

Better yet I had one today that was a very high pop up between F2 and F1, F1 whiffs, doesn't touch it, and the ball shoots foul.