Fould poles,In play or not?

[PABlue]

The foul pole was directly in front of the home run fence but its whole diameter was in fair territory. This was NOT covered in the ground rules because in over a 100 games done on this field over the years I had never seen it and coach who played there as a student and been involved with the program for 30 plus years had never seen it either.

I signaled a fair ball and it was played by all players as a routine play, turned into a stand up double. I agree that if this pole was behind or PART of the fence we would have had a home run. Our chapter will be covering this in our next chapter meeting with instructions to address this at the plate meeting at all future games.

[rcaverly]

We have a similar situation in our area. The town built a beautiful ball park but the big-league foul poles are, just as in the OP, inside the fence.

Their quick fix: Surround each pole with additional fencing that is attached to the wall, in effect making it a part of it. It looks good and the finished product is safe and secure.