The foul pole has a fascinating history.
At Fenway Park a few days ago, Boston’s Trevor Story sliced a fly ball down the right field line. Cleveland Guardians right fielder Jhonkensy Noel pursued the ball and reached out for it just in front of the foul pole. The ball bounced off his glove, hit the foul pole, bounced back into his glove, and then was jarred loose when his glove hit a fan.
The umpires called it a foul ball, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora asked for a review. The umps changed the call to a home run. Why? Noel caught the ball in fair territory, and the foul pole knocked it out of his glove before he established possession of the ball. That move caused the ball to touch the pole, and it was ruled a home run.
It is known as The Pesky Pole, in honor of Johnny Pesky, an infielder for the Red Sox in the 1940s and 1950s. Former Red Sox lefthander Mel Parnell is believed to be the first person to refer to Fenway’s right-field foul pole as ‘‘Pesky’s Pole.’’ Parnell, a Sox broadcaster in the 1960s, enjoyed talking about how Pesky, a power-challenged left-handed hitter, benefited from an occasional fly ball that would hit the pole and go for a home run.
The pole is just 302 feet from home plate. Story’s shot would not have been a home run in any other major league park.
The foul pole, in general, has a fascinating history.
Beginning in 1860, a foul ball post was to be placed 100 feet from both third and first base in line with home base. The post was used to help the umpire judge whether a batted ball landed in fair or foul ground. A more fitting name would be the fair ball post because a ball striking the post is fair.
In 1861, a new rule stated that “a line connecting home and first and home and third” must be marked by the use of chalk or other suitable material. That line is called the foul line, but again, it would be more aptly named the fair line, since any ball that hits it is ruled fair. A little over a decade later (in 1874), the foul ball posts were moved to the limits of the ground, but the foul lines were not extended. Then, in 1878, the foul lines were extended to the length of the field.
The foul pole serves as a visual aid, and its height and materials have evolved. The first foul poles were made of wood and not standardized in height. Today, foul poles in major league parks are metal and must be at least 30 feet tall, with 45 feet the recommended height.
Sutter Park Health Park in Sacramento, CA (photo courtesy Sactown Sports)
When I attended an A’s game last week at their temporary minor league park, Sutter Health Park, in Sacramento, California, I noticed that the foul poles were not very high, perhaps closer to 30 feet than 45. This would make it difficult for an umpire to judge if a long fly ball is a home run or just a long foul.
But even in major league ballparks, there have been many cases of balls hit so high that the foul pole is of no help to the umpire. A famous instance happened at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in 1977 when slugger Dave Kingman hit a ball against the technical ring in left field (the large concrete structure that surrounds the opening in the roof) over a hundred feet above the fence. The ball was ruled foul, but the umpires instructed ground crews to paint a line on the ring to demarcate fair from foul territory before the next day’s game.
There have been other interesting foul-pole-related incidents in baseball history. In July 2012, at PNC Park, Garrett Jones and Neil Walker pulled back-to-back home runs off the right field foul pole. In Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, Howie Kendrick hit a two-run home run off the right field foul pole at Houston’s Minute Maid Park to give the Nationals a 3-2 lead. It was one of the most dramatic Game 7 homers in World Series history, and the Nats went on to win 6-2 to take the crown.
Speaking of the Pesky’s Pole, in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 2004 World Series at Fenway Park, with the Sox and Cardinals tied at nine apiece, Mark Bellhorn hit a two-run homer off the pole to propel Boston to an 11-9 win. The Sox swept the next three games to win the Fall Classic.
There’s more. In the sixth inning of Game 2 of the 2017 American League Division Series between Cleveland and New York, Francisco Lindor clobbered a grand slam off Chad Green off the right-field foul pole at Cleveland’s Progressive Field to draw the Indians to within 8-7 of the Yanks. The Indians went on to win 9-8 in 13 innings. Unfortunately for the Tribe, New York came back to win three straight and take the series.
Not as famous, but very dramatic was a two-out, three-run walk-off homer by the A’s Marco Scutaro off the Yankees Mariano Rivera that hit the left field foul pole in Oakland in April 2007 to give the A’s a 5-4 victory.
No discussion of foul pole dramatics is complete without revisiting Carlton Fisk’s 12th-inning, game-winning home run at Fenway Park in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Fisk pulled the ball down the left-field line and jumped up and down and waved his hands to the right, willing the ball fair. It clanked off the pole, which was then christened “Fisk’s Pole.”
Guess who congratulated Fisk from the first-base coaching box? Johnny Pesky.
FOOTNOTE: Why did the camera stay on Fisk, despite the fact that cameramen were instructed to follow the flight of the ball? It was because Lou Gerard, distracted by a nearby rat and unable to follow the ball, kept the camera on Fisk instead.
