the.com/foul line
The line that turns a monster hit into a souvenir for nobody.
means The straight line running from home plate through first and third base out to the outfield fence, marking the boundary that separates fair territory from foul.
from A straightforward compound of 'foul,' from Old English 'ful' meaning unclean or offensive, stretched in sporting use since the mid-1800s to mean 'outside the boundary of play' — and 'line,' tracing back to Latin 'linea,' a thread or string, originally the flax line used to mark a straight mark on the ground. Baseball borrowed the ordinary word for 'dirty' to mean 'out of bounds,' and paired it with the oldest word there is for a straight mark, making the foul line one of the sport's plainest-named inventions.
- baseball origin
- Chalk extends from home plate past first and third base
- bowling version
- Crossing it voids the strike even if pins fall
- fair vs foul
- Ball's position when touched decides, not where it lands