Just happened in 4th game of series. I, too, wondered what the reasoning was. Makes sense that a third foul bunt should count as a strike if it is easier to hit a bunt. Oh, and the reason baseball is not as popular as football and basketball in US is most people no longer work on the land.
Our economical structures are reflected in our sports. Farming is more reflective of the rugged individualism of the 19th and 20th centuries. Just a thought. Caught fouls are not strike three. They are regular "putouts" catches credited to the fielder who caught them, just as they would be in fair territory. Never seen it before now!
Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. As an extension of that strategy a team could bunt with two strikes repeatedly to force a dominating pitcher out of the game due to exhaustion. Featured on Meta. These days, the rulebook explicitly states that a foul bunt with two strikes counts as a strikeout, but back then, the rulebook didn't say anything of the sort. Even when it was updated in , there still wasn't any wording regarding how to handle foul bunts with two strikes.
It is unclear specifically when the change officially happened, but we know it did at some point. There's one story in particular on the intent rule that comes from the year immediately before this it was implemented that both gives us the temperature of the players' feelings on excessive foul balls and is also hilarious. On another occasion, Thomas reportedly fouled off 22 pitches. On the Thomas vs. Phillips incident -- in the eighth inning -- Phillips was so enraged that he punched Thomas.
Yes, a punch over foul balls! Thanks to history not being clear at this point in time when it came to baseball, we can't be sure if Phillips was bunting or just skillfully swinging.
With this information, it makes sense that the league attempted to judge intent of the hitter on foul balls. All of the above information paved the way for the game we see today when it comes to foul balls and bunting rules.
I have no doubt some of the best batsmiths in baseball today can foul pitches off on purpose hello, Joey Votto , but they are also dealing with much more difficult pitching. In the early advent of the game, the players had no idea what pitches like the modern slider, splitter or cutter looked like, much less did they have to deal with those pitches in addition to highs four-seamers regularly.
In fact, given that, there's a part of me that can't help but wonder if the two-strike foul bunt rule is still even necessary these days. Pitchers have such amazing stuff and the bunt is becoming somewhat of a lost art. In how many scenarios per game can we truly envision a player sitting up there and fouling off a dozen pitches on purpose with a bunt, hoping to wear down the pitcher, all the while taking the risk he'll whiff on one of the pitches and strike out instead of just trying to swing away and get a hit?
It feels like in some rare scenarios, it could and would happen. In many others, it simply wouldn't be worth it. That's my feeling, at least, but we just don't know.
A bigger part of me doesn't even want to find out. I like the rule exactly how it is. It's the way I've always known the game and there's no reason to change this rule. Seriously, though, this game is just as historically fascinating as it is to watch on a daily basis.
Just seeing a simple play against the backdrop of something that happened the day before can send you down a big-time rabbit hole. Take it from me with this article as evidence. And it's all still so much fun. Just like this game has always been and always will be, as far as I'm concerned, no matter what tweaks are made. By Matt Snyder. Feb 12, at am ET 10 min read. Watch Now:. MLB pace issues are over years old Matt Snyder 10 min read.
How secure is Manfred's job as lockout looms? Dayn Perry 7 min read. Top offseason question for each team Mike Axisa 19 min read. If any other player other than the pitcher is up, then it makes more sense to swing away. Believe it or not, the 2 strike bunt foul has not always been a rule. In fact, foul balls were not even counted as a strike back in the early days of baseball.
Foul balls used to just be dead balls and that was that — it was neither a strike nor a ball. This rule outlines the foul ball as we know today: a foul ball is counted against the batter as a strike unless there are 2 strikes against the batter. The Foul Strike Rule also included a rule that a foul ball could be called a strike if the foul ball was intentional and there were 2 strikes on the batter therefore, bunting with 2 strikes would now result in a strikeout.
Turns out, there are a handful of reasons the league wanted this rule in place. Even back in the early s, people were making rule changes to increase the pace of play. One of the reasons this new rule would increase the pace of play is because batters would be unable to hit as many foul balls as they did before.
If a foul ball is counted against the batter then the batter has more strikes against him. Could you imagine the strategy that would be used today if foul balls were counted as neither a strike nor a ball?
Batters who are less skilled would be able to square up a bunt and continuously foul off those pitches until they receive enough balls to walk to first. In fact, this was a strategy that was beginning to be used until the Foul Strike Rule was enacted and prevented this type of strategy. Between the time the Foul Strike Rule was enforced in in the National League and in in the American League, it was shown that the offense for the American League had higher numbers.
Making some contact with a bunt and fouling off the pitch continuously would also increase the length of time it took to play baseball. So adding this ruling also ended up helping speed up the time frame of a game. If batter could foul off pitch after pitch by bunting, then pitchers would have to throw more and more pitches. So one strategy a manager could implement would be to ask your batters to keep fouling off pitches until the pitcher is tired and must be taken out of the game.
Looking back through the lens of what we know today, this strategy seems fairly obvious and sounds like a pretty unfair advantage for the batters.
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