Well, howdy there, y’all! Let’s gab a bit about them baseball fellers hittin’ balls all over the place. We’re gonna jaw about the most foul balls in an at bat, you know, when them batters just keep fouling ’em off.
Now, I ain’t no fancy baseball expert, mind you. I just like watchin’ them fellers swing and run around. But I heard tell of some fellers who really know how to foul up a pitch. They say there ain’t no real limit to how many foul balls you can hit. Imagine that! You could just stand there all day, foulin’ off pitches. Heck, that pitcher would be plum tuckered out!
I remember hearin’ about a fella named Brandon Belt. This fella, he was somethin’ else. One time, he hit 16 foul balls in one at bat! Sixteen! Can you believe that? That pitcher must have been cussin’ up a storm. Took ’em 21 pitches and 13 minutes just to get that fella out. He finally hit a fly ball, but Lordy, that was a long at bat.
Then there’s this other fella, Luke Appling. They say he hit 15 foul balls back in 1940. That’s a whole heap of foul balls, too! Seems like some fellers just got a knack for fouling ’em off. Maybe they ain’t tryin’ to, maybe they just can’t seem to hit it fair.
Now, most of the time, foul balls don’t really matter much. You can hit a bunch and it don’t count against ya, ‘cept for that third strike thing. But if you’re playin’ a real strict game, they might count everythin’. I ain’t too sure about all them fancy rules, though. I just like watchin’ the game.
- Foul Balls and Strikes: Most of the time, fouling off a pitch just adds to the excitement. It ain’t a strike unless you already got two strikes, then if you foul it off, you’re out. Simple as that.
- Longest At-Bats: Them fellers like Brandon Belt, they can make an at bat last forever. Hittin’ all them foul balls, wearin’ down the pitcher. It’s somethin’ to see, that’s for sure.
- Records and Such: Folks keep track of all sorts of things in baseball. How many hits, how many runs, and how many foul balls too, I guess. They say some fella named William Holbert played a whole career without hittin’ a home run. Can you imagine that? All them at bats, and no home runs. Well, I reckon that was a long time ago, back in them “dead-ball” days.
I reckon hittin’ foul balls ain’t the goal, though. Them fellers wanna hit it fair and get on base. But sometimes, foulin’ off a bunch of pitches can tire out the pitcher, make him throw more pitches, and maybe he’ll make a mistake. That’s what I figure, anyway.
William Holbert, they say he played a whole heap of games without hittin’ no home runs. Thousands of at-bats! That’s just plain crazy, ain’t it? But that was a long time ago, when the game was different. They didn’t have all them fancy bats and balls they got now.
And then you got fellers like Willie Wilson, Ichiro Suzuki and Juan Samuel, they had over 700 at-bats in a season! That’s a lot of chances to hit the ball, fair or foul. And some fellers even got 11 at-bats in a single game! But that’s usually when the game goes into extra innings. For a regular 9 inning game, the most at-bats is usually around 7, but it’s happened more than 200 times. That’s a lot of swingin’, I tell ya!
I remember once, my grandson took me to a game. We were sittin’ right behind the dugout, and them fellers were hittin’ foul balls all over the place. I even caught two of ’em! It was excitin’, I tell ya. But I gave them balls to my grandson. He was happier than a pig in mud.
So, there you have it, folks. A little somethin’ about them foul balls in baseball. It ain’t the most important thing, but it’s part of the game. And sometimes, it’s fun to watch them fellers just keep foulin’ ’em off, makin’ the pitcher work harder and harder. It’s all part of the show, I reckon. And that’s just fine by me.
Anyways, that’s all I got to say about that. Hope y’all enjoyed my ramblin’. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go make some supper. Got some beans and cornbread cookin’, and my stomach’s startin’ to growl.
