A case can be made that baseball’s best play
is the foul ball into the stands, a lucky fan
gets a souvenir, the batter another swing,
the pitcher one more chance to get an out.
A win-win situation all around, especially
if you don’t know the rules of the game,
which from this perspective are arbitrary.
On the other hand, if you’re a devoted fan
rooting for players on a particular team
you don’t cheer for foul balls. If you side
with the batter you feel badly he didn’t
get a hit, if the pitcher, no strikeout,
ground out, or easy fly. A foul ball
is merely the status quo, the chance for
victory or defeat hasn’t budged an inch.