By Joe Browne

ICYMI: Earlier this week Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story celebrated his Labor Day by hitting maybe the most effortless homerun in baseball history. In the bottom of the sixth, Guardians righty Jakob Junis served up a 306 foot lazy fly ball to right field, until it wasn’t. The ball ricocheted off of Cleveland’s Jhonkensy Noel’s glove and hit the right field foul pole. After a lengthy review by the umpires and replay review room the result of the play was deemed a homerun. According to statcast a ball hit at that distance, exit velocity and launch angle would be a homerun in…0/30 major league ballparks. If you are unfamiliar with Fenway Park’s wacky dimensions allow me to break it down for you. Straight down the right field line in Boston the foul pole is 302 feet away from home plate. It is the shortest distance from foul pole to home plate in any active ballpark. Due to this Boston’s right field foul pole has been deemed the “pesky pole”. Pesky is not just an adjective, it goes deeper than that. The right field foul pole in Boston is actually named after Johnny Pesky. Pesky was given the namesake of the pole because he played ten seasons in Boston and is a franchise legend. 

Story’s homer on Monday afternoon got me thinking about the history of the foul pole in baseball. Foul poles have been present in baseball even before most fields used fences to enclose themselves. They serve a simple yet integral purpose: to help the umpires judge whether the ball landed in fair or foul territory. Of course like anything else in baseball they have evolved over the years. Later on they became taller and painted a bright yellow so it is easy to decipher whether the white ball struck the yellow metal. Today, just like about anything in this world noadays some teams have placed advertisements on them for monetization value. 

When talking about Story’s outlier home run he hit on Monday afternoon, someone asked me why it is a “foul” pole and not a “fair” pole. In that instance a very valid point was made. If the baseball strikes the pole it’s a fair ball and a homerun. Not a foul ball and dead. So, in order to cut down on potential fan confusion why doesn’t baseball simply change the name of the pole. Like many other things in this great game, sometimes baseball is wacky in the way it goes about things. This is yet another instance of just that wackiness. 

Sources:

Baseball Fever

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

MLB.com