actually jesse, if you go back and watch the closeup Instant Replay by FSN North, the Ball hit below the yellow line.

I believe the yellow line is in play. The ball must clear the yellow line to be a home run. If it hits the yellow line on the vertical plane, it’s just a ball of the wall. It it hits the yellow line on the horizontal plane, it’s a home run. The only way it can do that and bounce back onto the field is if it bounces up first and lands on the field with backspin. This ball dropped straight down after hitting the wall, meaning it had to hit the yellow line on the vertical plane. It was the correct call.

It’s interesting that if a ball hits the foul pole above the wall, it’s a home run. But when the ball hits the wall at the yellow line it’s in play.

One other thing. With all the talk of instant replay, why do we continue to have yellow lines and foul poles? The ball is cream colored. It is extremely hard to see with the naked eye where it hits a yellow background. Why not give the the pole a contrasting color, such as dark green or blue? And why even have a yellow line at the top of the fence to obscure where the ball hits? On a blue wall, it would be easy to see where the ball landed because of the contrast. The whole issue with this call was made more difficult because of the yellow line. I’ve never understood that.

This is something that a lot of people at the game were mad about and is inconsistent around the league.

The yellow line is NOT a home run at Miller Park. Simply hitting the top of the wall is never a home run anywhere if they ball bounces back into play. Of course, usually it simply keeps going straight over, and is a home run.

In some stadiums, the yellow line is drawn across something that lays flat with the wall, but is determined to be above the wall and marks where the home run is. In some stadiums, a piece of wall protrudes up from the rest of the wall, and this area is drawn off with yellow, and the yellow marks a home run.

But the yellow line in Miller Park simply helps to make it more clear if the ball bounces off the wall right behind the field wall and goes back in play ( a home run, naturally).

The call was right. The Twins still got lucky, because maybe 2 more inches and the ball hits the back of the wall instead of the front and goes out, but still the right call.

I still don’t understand why they think a creme-colored ball against a yellow background is going to help umpires pick it up with the naked eye.

Coming from a publishing background, we would never use creme-colored text on a yellow background because the eye just sees noise and can’t pick up the words. For the same reason, I don’t understand why they don’t choose black. Or, when the wall is already a dark color, why even have a line?

In my memory, there’s never been a disputed home run in the Metrodome that did not involve the yellow (mesh) foul pole. Dark blue curtain/wall makes it easy to see if a creme-colored ball goes over the fence or not.