Or your partner overturns your call. Oops, wrong thread...

I took my sons to a AAA game today and saw R3 get hit with a fair ball in foul territory. The ball bounced on the line and hit him a foot or two outside the line. Ump called dead ball and sent him back to base.

The whole park was screaming that he was out because he was hit. My 8 year old asked me why he was safe (he'd been hit with a batted ball in Little League this season). When I explained why, he said "oh, that's why they run from third base in foul territory then."

You mean "a foul ball."

Nope, I meant fair ball. The last time it touched the ground it was fair. It didn't become foul until it hit the runner. The park apparently thought it was fair because it was on the ground in fair territory. I suppose I should have called it a "fair" ball.

Woa there. If the ball hit the line and then the runner in foul territory before it reached 3B it is foul. If it hit the bag and then bounced up and hit the runner in foul territory it is fair. That's about the only way I can think of off-hand that you can get hit by a fair ball while in fair territory.

I think you mean foul territory. :) Apparently this is equivilent to a toungue twister.

No, I'm sure you meant to say foul ball.

If the last time it touched the ground was prior to third base and then touched the runner in foul territory, it was foul.

Yes, I understand that. My point was that it appeared fair to the casual observer, thus my placement of the word fair in quotes in the second post on the subject. The ball was bouncing down the line and hit a runner standing at that line.

The word fair was intended as sarcasm. I suppose my original post should have read...

Notice the word fair is in quotation marks to denote sarcasm.

Nahhh. We're umpires. We're too literal . It wouldn't have helped. ;)

Apparently. :)