#ASGAdventure: PNC Park's double-dinger foul pole -- up close and personal

Let's talk about this foul pole for a minute, shall we?

It's just a foul pole, right? Sure, it's yellow and it's at PNC Park, which means it matches one of the two primary colors of the hometown Pirates. But this is a matter more of coincidence than careful consideration. It's no Pesky Pole, in terms of its historical significance. And it's not even adorned in advertising, like some other, more preposterous poles in the game today.

But something happened to this foul pole Monday night that bears repeating. It was struck by not one but two Buccos home runs, consecutively. Garrett Jones pelted it for a two-run home run off the Astros' Jordan Lyles, and then Neal Walker stepped up to bat and did the same for a solo shot.

What I like about this pole is not just that it was subjected to this seemingly rare feat; it's that we know a little bit about how rare that feat truly was. The good and altogether obsessive folks at STATS LLC confirmed that there have not been back-to-back foul pole shots in the Major Leagues since at least 2000 -- the year foul-pole homer data was first kept.

Go ahead and read that sentence back to yourself. In 2000, somebody decided to start keeping foul-pole homer stats, because our perception of the game was simply a little less fulfilled without them. The mountain of minutiae -- be it monumental or mundane -- available in this sport is simply staggering.

And come to think of it, now that I know this little foul-pole fact from Monday night, I find myself pretty perturbed that pre-2000 data is not available. That seems pretty foul.

-- Anthony Castrovince