Posnanski: Luke Appling, the king of fouls
From SABR member Joe Posnanski at Joe Blogs on April 23, 2018:
On Sunday, San Francisco’s Brandon Belt had an at-bat for the ages against Los Angeles’ Jaime Barria. First inning, Belt was the second batter of the game. He fouled off 16 pitches. Yes, Belt fouled off 16 pitches, including 11 in a row. He eventually flew out, but that 21 pitch at-bat is the longest at-bat since we started recording such things.
Naturally, instead of qualifying it like that — longest since we started recording such things — people started calling it the longest at-bat EVER, which brought out the history folks, including Keith Olbermann.
Sure, you may have heard this one before — Hall of Famer Luke Appling supposedly fouled off 24 pitches in a single at-bat. Is that real? Did it happen?
Sounds like a rabbit hole to me.
Read the full article here: http://joeposnanski.com/the-king-of-fouls/
- Related link: Read the SABR biography of Luke Appling
Originally published: April 27, 2018. Last Updated: April 27, 2018.