ball crossing third base

[aevans410]

I think you guys are making this harder that it has to be.

I think what Mike Rowe was saying in that post (correct me if I'm wrong) is that in the ORIGINAL post (determined by the comment of -ship, reread the post- to start it. He was commenting that if the ball indeed started in foul territory, it had to come back to fair territory to satisfy the context of the original situation) the ball bounded by the bag and never left fair territory until it passed the bag.

Remember this, a batted ball is not a fair or foul ball until something makes it foul or fair. The ball passing 1st or 3rd base bags in fair territory make it fair. The ball coming to rest in foul territory, passing the bags in foul territory, or contacting a runner, coach, on deck hitter, helmet, bat, fence (etc) makes it foul. The ball can be in foul territory, hit a rock, come back and hit the bag (which is an object in fair territory), bound back, smack the catcher dead in the mask, and its a fair ball. The fact that the ball hit the bag MADE it a fair ball. Don't get caught up in the semantics of where the ball changed directions, that just tends to confuse you. It is what it is. The ball passing over the bag makes it fair, not where the ball started when it actually passed the bag.