Quote:
Originally Posted by westcoast
While the rule book is clear, it is a bit perplexing why sinking a ball with your sleeve, hand, or stick isn’t a foul while hitting a ball off the table is a foul. In both circumstances the ball left the table accidentally- shouldn’t the consequence be the same?
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Leaving the table is not quite the same thing as falling into a pocket, because there are actual holes in the table. It's like eating your food or throwing it out the window, in both cases it's gone, but because of two totally different situations. The rails on the table are there to prevent a ball from leaving it, the holes in the table are there to accept pocketed balls. In one case you are going against the design of the table, in the other, the table is just physically allowing the ball to drop.