Why you can't foul out in baseball

[pokerfan]

This was discussed here a few weeks ago and while I don't have an answer, the rule leads to some of the most dramatic moments in sport, where a batter continues to battle at the plate fouling off pitch after pitch.

Like last night's Baltimore vs. Seattle game:

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Chad Bradford and his flailing, submarine delivery that produces hard to decipher pitches was not the matchup Seattle's Adrian Beltre wanted.

"I really don't like facing guys like that," he said.

But Beltre worked a bases loaded walk from Bradford with two outs in the eighth inning on Wednesday night, forcing in Jose Vidro with the winning run in the Mariners' 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Beltre showed patience, working the count to 3-2 before fouling off a pair of borderline pitches. Bradford's eighth offering to Beltre missed well outside and Vidro jogged home with the go-ahead run after Seattle had let a four-run lead slip away.

[bicentennial_baby]

1. That may have been my thread...

I still don't get it :P

[pokerfan]

2. Like I said, I don't have a reason

It's just the rules. You could certainly play the game either way. Incidentally, a ball is bunted foul with two strikes is ruled a strikeout.

I don't think the game would be as entertaining if a batter couldn't hang there indefinitely.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. I speculated on this in the earlier thread

It's no accident that there're so many foul balls on 3-2 pitches, particularly by the contact hitters in the 1-3 spots. Hitters don't want to take a borderline pitch on 3-2 because it might catch a corner. OTOH, they don't want to try to drive a pitch that isn't in their zone. So, especially on 3-2, contact hitters will shorten their swings and intentionally foul off a pitch.

I'm guessing — just guessing, mind you — that this rule exists so as not to penalize these guys for being particular.

BTW — in the old, old days, like the 1870s, there was a rule by which a foul ball caught on the first bounce was an out. It was called a "fair foul" — fair to be caught, one supposes.

[pokerfan]

4. The foul-strike rule

Very interesting treatise on the subject from the Mariners hometown:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/119132_kopp25.html

I say it improved the game. While I love duels with two strikes, I can't imagine not penalizing the batter at all for fouling with fewer than two strikes.