Who's keepin' this guy's books?

Today, Pat called me on the road moments after this bizarre happening...
Pat made a soda delivery to a small, rural market. As the proprietor wrote out a check to pay for the product, Pat-- as per custom-- took the invoice to mark "Paid" on it. The store manager saw this, and told Pat, "The check number is eleven-triple four-nine."
Ok, thought Pat, and he proceeded to write "#114449" on the bill.
"What are you doing?" the dude stammered. "I said triple four."
Taken aback, Pat said, "Right. I wrote 1-1-4-4-4-9."
"But that's three fours. I said triple four," the man indignantly phrased. "If I meant 3 fours, I would have said 3 fours." (WHAT???)
At a loss, Pat shrugged. Then the man took the invoice and pointed, "There's 2 fours! The check number is 11449."
Pat's mind raced with two thoughts. First, Call [Mr. I] and tell him about this! Second, Don't laugh in this guy's face! Don't laugh!

The transaction completed, Pat couldn't resist a dig of logic. "I just assumed that there were three fours in the check number, because in baseball, when a player hits a triple, he gets 3 bases."

With a blank stare, the man hesitated, ".....Oh..."