Alright, so the other day, I was watching a baseball game with my buddy, and he was totally confused about what a “foul out” was. He kept asking, “Isn’t that a basketball thing?” It got me thinking that maybe a lot of folks might not know the deal, so I decided to do a little digging and set the record straight.
My “Foul Out” Investigation
First, I hit up the official MLB rulebook online. I figured that’d be the best place to start, you know, straight from the horse’s mouth. Scrolled through a bunch of pages, looking for anything related to “foul out.”
Found a section about foul balls. Reading it carefuly, I found foul ball definition, such as a batted ball that settles on foul territory or that goes out of play, etc.
Then, I checked out some baseball forums and fan sites. I wanted to see how other people talked about this stuff. Saw a few posts asking the same question, and the answers were pretty consistent.
What I Learned: No “Foul Out” in Baseball!
Here’s the deal, plain and simple: There’s no such thing as a “foul out” in baseball. It’s just not a rule. My buddy was right; it is a basketball term. In basketball, you get a certain number of personal fouls, and if you go over that limit, you’re out of the game. But baseball doesn’t work that way.
In baseball, you can hit as many foul balls as you want. It might be annoying for the pitcher, but it won’t get you kicked out. A foul ball usually just counts as a strike, unless you already have two strikes. If you have two strikes, you can keep hitting foul balls forever (in theory) without striking out.
So, I explained all of that to my friend. Now he can enjoy baseball games, and I can share this with anyone else who is mixed up between baseball and basketball.
