"Homerun" and Talking Heads
 

With all their experience, the talking heads should know that it doesn't matter where a ball lands beyond the fence. What matters is where it crossed the fence in flight. They cause more trouble than they are worth with their misinterpretations and analyses.

They might have some assumptions in their statements that are not being addressed.

What is the possibility that a right handed batters ball off the bat leaves the field foul and lands fair? Is it windy. If no wind, laws of physics would not support going foul to fair. Was the ball acting like a knuckle ball?

Blown call?

Yes, it is windy. And it is possible for a ball to leave play foul and land to the right of the 3bl beyond the fence.

Or the left side of the 1bl for that matter:D

Idiot in the studio declares that physics make it impossible for a ball to pass the fence foul and land on the line.

I can tell you that I have witnessed, as a 3B umpire, a batted ball hit by a RH batter pass over the stands which begin more than 30' off the 3BL come back and just get inside the pole more than once (about a dozen times during a game). And that was with no wind in a minor league ball park. Granted, this was slow pitch, but I doubt "physics" knows the difference between the two. From what I have learned since, it all has to do with bat speed at contact.

In OKC, the wind was blowing out, so with a LH batter, once that ball clears the stands and concourse structures, it is not only possible, but quite probable that the wind caught and affected the flight of the ball.

Amen to that...I've seen batted balls curve on windless days only because of the spin of the pitch and the bat speed at contact. Some of those hits curve better than my golf swings! :eek:

What the talking heads are not smart enough to realize is that while they said it should have been a home run, that opinion was based upon their view of where the ball landed and not where it passed the foul pole. Well their view (and the view of the camera) was 30 feet above the field. Pretty easy for them to make that judgment with a tainted view.

Sally Walker didn't have that vantage point. She didn't have the luxury of seeing where the ball landed because the dark temporary fence blocked her view of where the ball landed. She had to make her call based only upon where the flight of the ball was in relation to the foul pole which is what she is supposed to do.

by the way that high fly that goes over the fair pole is an impossible call in some cases ... aka a guess