[Coffee... Black... No Sugar]

If the ball were ever “foul” on the play, it cannot become “fair”, or “un-foul” by being untouched by a player, etc.

I recognize that an untouched “fair” ball CAN become “foul” by rule, but you would need to explain to me how the reciprocal was true.

The call had to have been “fair ball” from the beginning for this play to be within the rule.

[OrangeHoof]

If a foul ball is untouched by a fielder or object and then rolls fair before it passes first or third base and the fielder touches the ball in fair territory, it is a fair ball. I’ve seen it happen before.

The fair-foul scenario is more common because it is usually in the fielder’s best interest to touch the ball when it is foul and thus no play because runners are advancing. In this case, however, the fielder’s advantage was a fair ball because the force was in order and nobody was running.

[JohnBrowdie]

I never said any of that. and I needn’t explain anything to you. either you get it, or you don’t.

either way, it’s just not my problem.

[Defiant]

In addition, once a ball has been called foul by an ump, that is it. This ump called it foul. The ump is supposed to wait to make that foul call. the call he made is one you make when the ball is fouled off someone's foot and then rolls fair. If the ump makes an incorrect call, it is like an inadvertent whistle in football, the play is dead and you go by the ump's call. Can you imagine if you had an ump calling foul on a ball off a player's foot, and the runners advanced to the next base every time anyway, just to be safe? The umps would go ape over the delay that caused.

A foul call means foul. If the ump was wrong, nothing you can do about it. The runners have to be able to rely on the ump. Here, what seems to have happened is that the ump realized it wasn't foul and then wanted to pretend that he hadn't called it foul because then he looks like he made a mistake. But instead, he made a bigger one, by giving a team a triple play.