He Wants the Home Run to Be Just a Long Foul Ball

Going, going, gone.

Not so, according to Hermann R. Muelder. The Knox College history professor proposes over-the-wall home runs be termed foul balls since they are inconsistent with baseball rules.

Muelder proposed the rule change in a recent plea to support the characteristics of baseball that set it apart from other American sports.

“Baseball is a game in which various things happen to the ball itself,” he said. “But in scoring, it’s not what happens to the ball that makes the score. It’s what happens to the player.”

Muelder explained the radical rule change by noting that in other sports, like football and basketball, the ball must cross the goal line or pass through the hoop. In baseball, it is the player who scores.

The only exception in baseball, he says, is the home run which, incidentally, requires less skill than a well-placed infield hit. Instead of a run scored, Muelder recommends over-the-wall homers be regarded as other balls hit out-of-play.

“Just a loud foul . . . a long strike,” he said. “Why is that hit any more exciting or remakrable than a real hard line shot that clears the head of the second baseman by two feet and eldues the center fielder?

“Actually, the . . . home run out of the park is really dull, and takes less true skill than a well-placed hit.”

He defends inside-the-park home runs as a legitimate example of batting and running prowess.

The 79-year-old historian and baseball fan said his comments are in defense of the game, which he said is losing it’s place in American culture.

“I’m bothered by the fact that in the past few years, baseball’s relative place in our culture has eroded because of the trespassing of football, basketball and more recently, God help us, wrestling,” he said.