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Line Drive Home Run

The batter hits a sharp line drive, and wouldn’t you know it? The ball has just enough on it that all the outfielders can do is watch as the ball leaves the park for a 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).

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 a ball that hits those poles on the fly will be 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.

Line drive home runs tend to look just a bit different when compared to homers that come from fly balls— they don't get as far off the ground, and they tend to leave the park a lot more quickly. Many only barely clear the outfield fence. And those that don't? Well, a ball that hits a part of the fence and bounces out will usually count as a home run, though this depends a lot on where the game is being played; different ballparks have different fences, and thus, different “ground rules” that dictate what happens when a ball hits various spots¹. For this reason, you will sometimes see runners unconcernedly running the bases as a ball hits of a wall, 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 bounces 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. When there is no one on base when a home run is hit, it’s a solo home run.

One last thing: for home runs, just because the ball is no longer in play, that doesn’t mean the batter is 100% protected from getting out. They still have to touch the bases, in order. If they 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.

Once everything calms down after a home run, play resumes (unless the runner really screwed up and managed to cause the third out); the next batter comes up to bat and the game continues.