Odd Question

[DocTee]

I know that unpires will replace fouled balls-- either those that were hit out of fair territory or those that have presumably been scuffed by making contact with the dirt around home plate. This is-presumably-- to prevent pitchers from using the scuffs to their advantage.

Why then do they not replace balls after every play? Surely the damage inflicted by a hard ground ball to third base, either by the bat itself or by the infield dirt, would be as much as they inflicted by a 58 foot curveball.

Not that I've lost sleep over this or anythng, but was just curious.

[Elster88]

When they "replace" balls after a curve in the dirt, I think they just put them back in their pouches, and don't really remove them from play. I could be wrong.