Alright, so I got this idea stuck in my head the other day, wondering about a quirky baseball thing. You know how sometimes a batter just keeps fouling off pitches? Like, it goes on forever. So, I thought, what’s the actual record for the most foul balls hit by one batter during a single trip to the plate?
Naturally, the first thing I did was jump on the computer. Typed something simple into the search bar, like “most foul balls one at bat baseball”. You get a few hits right away, of course. A name that popped up a lot was Brandon Moss.
Digging a Bit Deeper
Okay, so Brandon Moss, playing for Oakland back in 2014 I think it was, had this epic at-bat against the Angels. The story goes he fouled off a whole bunch of pitches. Some sources said 12, some said more, during a 21-pitch at-bat. That sounds like a lot, definitely exhausting for everyone involved, especially the pitcher!
But then, you keep digging. You find forum posts, old articles, baseball history buffs arguing about it. It gets murky. Why? Because keeping track of every single foul ball wasn’t always the top priority, especially way back when.
- First, I saw the Moss story. Seemed straightforward.
- Then, I started seeing older claims. Much older.
- Found mentions of a guy named Roy Thomas, way back in the early 1900s. People claimed he fouled off 20-something pitches once.
- But here’s the kicker: verifying that stuff from over a century ago? Tough job. Records weren’t digitized, play-by-play wasn’t always super detailed about every foul.
So you run into this problem: what’s an official record versus what’s just a story that’s been passed down? MLB keeps track of pitch counts now, meticulously. But historically? It’s fuzzier.
What I Found Out (Sort Of)
After poking around for a while, reading different accounts, it seems like there isn’t one single, undisputed, officially blessed MLB record that everyone agrees on for the absolute highest number covering all of history. It’s weird, right? You’d think they’d track that.
What I can say I recorded from my search:
- Brandon Moss (2014): His 21-pitch at-bat is famous, and he definitely fouled off a ton of pitches (often cited around 12-15 fouls depending on how you count the non-strikes/balls). This one is well-documented because it’s recent.
- Luke Appling (1940s): Heard stories about him fouling off loads of pitches too, though finding exact numbers is hard.
- Roy Thomas (early 1900s): The legend persists of an at-bat with maybe 20+ fouls, but proving it with hard data seems impossible now.
So, yeah. My little research project ended up being less about finding a single number and more about realizing how some baseball stats, especially older ones, can be hard to pin down exactly. The Brandon Moss at-bat seems like the most solid, modern example people point to. But is it the all-time record? Hard to say for sure. It was still fun trying to track it down, though!