# Teach Me Baseball (all facets) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633 "2014-08-15T19:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633/61 "2014-08-21T18:22:07Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It would be a perfectly legal play but you’ll almost never see it. I don’t ever recall seeing this happen. > > The reason being, of course, that the outfielders will be playing very shallow - there is no reason to bother playing deep, since catching a long fly ball ends the game anyway, so the outfielders will play inside the distance of the limit of their ability to throw the runner out at home, cutting off short flies and line drives. They will therefore almost never be in a position to even attempt to get to a long foul ball. Good point. I should have factored playing shallow into the equation. It would have to be a more unusual combination of events…say, a shallower foul fly but with a very fast runner on third and the outfielder maybe having to make a catch with his back to home plate. But in such a case, the outfielder would be better off not even making the attempt, assuming the ball will clearly land foul. Then the only question would be overcoming his instinctive moving toward the ball. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633/62 "2014-08-21T23:43:44Z")
> [@Mr.Greenjeans](#): > > Most interesting thing to me about that video: It looks like the roof is closed. They set fireworks indoors? They do indeed. All playoff games played at the SkyDome - one assumes it’ll never happen again - were played with the roof closed. The fireworks are set off on trusses along the main roof section, which is almost 300 feet off the field; the stadium is genuinely immense. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633/63 "2014-08-25T16:10:40Z")
I used to go to games with a friend who was a mathematics professor. He summed it up this way: “The fundamental equilibrium of baseball is preserved by the fact that pitchers are smart and hitters are stupid.” ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633/64 "2014-08-25T17:23:44Z")
The situation Chord asked about happened in a Red Sox game a few years ago. The RF let it drop, for that very reason. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633/65 "2014-08-26T05:57:25Z")
Jtur88, I apologize but I edited your post accidentally, instead of replying to it, and deleted your second sentence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teach-me-baseball-all-facets/695633.md?page=3)