Objects in front of outfield fence
 

1) If there are foul poles that are in front of the fence, and the ball hits a foul pole above the fence line and (a) goes over the fence or (b) rebounds onto the field, what should the call be?

2) Same situation, only it's a scoreboard in left-center that is entirely in front of the fence.


I'm looking for a standard rule here, or is this something that varies from field to field depending on what the home team says the ground rules are?

1) (a) home run (b) home run. This is by rule.

2) this is a ground rule, check with home manager/coach.

For the most part these items should be covered in the ground rules. My take would be both should be home runs.

We have several fields where the light poles are within the fence (yeah you read correctly). All of them are surrounded by a chain-link fence which I am happy to report are also padded. Now the ground rules are different on some of the fields. On most, if a fly ball lands into this fenced area, it is a HR but several field's ground rules will only go with two bases.

We've requested that these few fields conform to the others but they want to keep tradition as they are old A, and AA MLB fields. "Well thar, dat's da way t'was den en it were good enuf fer them, so it good enuf fer us" Ahh, tradition. We let it go but we just have to make sure that when the newbies (5 year guys/gals) start working these fields, they make sure that they know about these "special" ground rules.

I am happy to say that all of these fields agree that a ball that bounces in is two bases (thank God!).

It depends on where the poles are relative to the fence. If adjacent (touching) but immediately in front, the pole (in most cases, if not all) is an extension of the fence, thus a home run. If 5' in front of the fence, tose items are usually covered by special ground rules

Is that why the overhanging porches at ball fields are never called homeruns but only doubles????:p

There is a difference between fair territory and homerun. All homeruns must be hit over fair territory.

Read the OP and my post again - My post does not even address the issue of scoreboards or light poles. I only address the foul pole. We're talking about a pole in contact with the fence and nothing else. I daresay in 99 times out of 100 in this situation that hitting the pole above the fence line will be ruled a home run, unless there are special ground rules to the contrary.

Houston's field has a huge flagpole on the top of their silly little hill in CF. I think it was Richie Sexon that bombed one to dead center 2 or 3 years ago, the thing hit 3/4 of the way up on the pole (that stems from fair territory). It came back onto the field of play, he ended up on third with a triple.

If it doesn't have a line on it, it should stay in play, but if the home manager wants to make it a HR if it hits above the fence, that's his call IMO.