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Fly Ball Home Run

The term “home run” is one of those baseball terms that has been subsumed into the broader American culture, and tends to show up in applications far removed from baseball. In these more general contexts, you can use the term “home run” as a way of signifying a success (a “home run presentation") or triumph (“they really hit a home run with their presentation”). All of these uses, of course, can be traced back to baseball.

In baseball, a home run is when the batter comes up to the plate, and hits a ball that allows them to run all the way around the bases before returning back to home and scoring a run (with any other runners on-base scoring, as well). Broadly speaking, this means that the ball winds up landing on the other side of the outfield fence¹, where it can no longer be fielded.

Normally, you can identify a home run pretty quickly— if the home team hits one, there’s usually some form of pyrotechnics or light shows, and if the visiting team hits one, you hear the unique sound of tens of thousands of people pretending that they are not mad. As always, though, there are some rules to remember. Most, importantly, the ball has to be hit fair to go for a home run. Unlike other fly balls, this isn’t necessarily measured by where the ball lands, but where it is when it passes the foul poles that are stationed at the outfield wall. The poles themselves are considered fair territory, so if a ball hits one of those poles on the fly, that's a home run. Similarly, if the ball passes the poles in fair territory, it’s a home run, even if the ball eventually lands in “foul” territory.

But what if a ball bounces off the fence and into the stands? Most of the time, this will also be a home run; different ballparks have different fences, and thus, different “ground rules” that dictate what happens when a ball hits various spots². For this reason, you will sometimes see runners unconcernedly running the bases as a ball hits off a wall, and back into the field of play. Once the ball hits the right spot, it’s a home run even if it’s settling at the feet of the right fielder. Oh, and speaking of fielders, if a ball bounces off of a fielder who is trying to make a play, and then carries over the outfield fence? That’s also a home run. So, uh, be careful out there, outfielders.

All home runs are usually labeled by the number of runs they produce. If there is no one on base when a home run is hit, it’s a solo home run— if there’s one runner on, it’s a two-run homer, etc., all the way up to a home run hit with the bases loaded, which is known as a “grand slam."

One last thing: for home runs, just because the ball is no longer in play, that doesn’t mean the runners are 100% protected from getting out. They still have to touch the bases, in order. If they, or any of the other runners, manage to miss one of those bases (or home plate), the defense can make what’s called an “appeal” to the umpire who is in charge of the base. Specifically, before the next pitch is thrown, the pitcher steps off the rubber, and throws the ball to the base in question, where a fielder will catch the ball and tag the base. If the umpire agrees that the runner never touched the base, that runner will be called out, and their run does not count. This type of thing is exceptionally rare, but it does still happen occasionally. The rise of replay means that teams may jump directly to a replay challenge instead of making the appeal, first.