There was a fun article in one of the SABR journals a few years back about the reverse of that. For some period in the 19th century, the rule was that a ball was fair if it landed fair, without having to pass either base. So some hitters mastered "fair-foul hitting," where they'd try to chop down on the ball and have it hit the ground in front of the plate with backspin, going straight back behind the catcher.