BG snags first-ever foul ball
Big weekend, fellas. After attending probably 100+ major league games over the course of my life, and only a handful of times even coming close to catching a foul ball, I can finally tick another item off my life's "to-do list."
I was pumped when I caught it, letting out an audible "Yeah!! All right!", pumping my fist in the air, and taking congratulatory high fives from the people around me - much to Mrs. BG's chagrin. However, I had always assumed that, being 33-years old and all, I'd give my foul ball to a nearby little kid or something. Well, when the time came, I kept it. And I have no regrets. Here's why...I decided to list a few criteria for deciding when to keep a foul ball (or homerun ball) and when to give it to a kid (granted, several of us already have kids, in which case this is a moot point, but bear with me here).
Give ball to a kid if:
-You grab the ball by leaning into a kid's seat and "stealing" it from him
-There is a scrum on the ground and you wrestle it out from a group
-You are very near a little kid with a glove on (or several kids)
Keep ball if:
-You make a clean play
-You are not surrounded by kids
-You don't push someone out of the way to catch it
As luck would have it (for me), my situation matched none of the "give away" criteria, and all of the "keep" criteria. The ball was flying at my buddy next to me (while our wives chatted), I reached out in front of him and made a sweet back-handed stab, and I was surrounded by middle-aged men and women (many of them White Sox fans). My only regrets:
1) As you can tell from the picture, I was under an overhang...so I caught it on one bounce after a crowd of people in front of us missed it (in their defense, it was a bit of a screamer)
2) It came off the bat of...gulp...Paul Konerko.
7 Comments:
Congratulations! I myself have never even been in the vicinity of a foul ball. The thought of being able to pull one in is amazing. I agree that you were not under any obligation to give away the ball. I don't think the guy who looks like he just got out of wind tunnel in front of you would mind. You have to love camera phones to capture moments like that. How does your buddy feel, pissed that you snagged his ball or relieved that he did not get drilled in the chest?
May 19, 2008 at 8:23 AM
BG - fabulous. I have never caught a ball (on everyone's list, right?) and never really been near one either (i.e. within 3 rows). I did go do a North Stars game once and saw a puck hit a dude square in the face and drop a few seats over from where I was sitting, the guy who got the puck gave it to the guy that got creamed (although I think the guy that got hit could have cared less at that point and just wanted the bleeding to stop.)
But I digress. Sounds like you made a nice play on the ball too, was it jumbotron worthy or did the overhang block you out? You also mentioned it was a 'screamer' was anyone particularly bruised and or battered by the ball as it came towards you?
May 19, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Dudes, I'm tickled that a) you support my position on NOT giving it away, and b) that this has spurred some conversation (as it justifies my mild Howard Dean-esque yelp). The ball was somewhere between a liner that might kill someone and a lazy pop...kind of a low spinner with decent velocity, but not a super hot shot. So luckily, no one was blind-sided below me, they just couldn't make the play and it miraculously squirted up toward me.
My buddy wasn't pissed at all, and as RTS suggests, was thankful that I was paying attention because this thing was about forehead high. Also...he had literally just finished telling me that he snagged his first ball last year (at age 34), and that some kid's dad asked him for it, as it was the son's 10th birthday...and my buddy said "No way! This is my first one!
Ironically, wind tunnel guy in front of me was a White Sox fan from Indiana. Nice guy, actually, and he told me that he dropped an easy one at Comiskey (or whatever it's called) last year, with the same buddy who was with him on Sat. at SBC Park. Since his buddy was in the bathroom when this all happened the other night, we played a trick on him, and when his buddy returned from the pisser, wind tunnel guy pretended he had caught it, which totally floored his buddy.
Unfortunately...no jumbotron action...I think I was too far up under the overhang.
May 19, 2008 at 11:16 AM
B to the G,
Excellent work...as others have said, I too have dreamed of that day-and have failed, as of yet, to even come close, so I appreciate your enthusiasm.
I do, however, have a couple of minor tweaks I think you should make to your list of when it is and when it is not appropriate to give the ball to a young kid. My thought is this: by giving the kid the ball, in a situation when he or she didn't earn it (and by earn it I mean they weren't strong enough to keep you from pulling it away from them their weak, child-grip, or weren't smart enough to realize that your feigned "Watch out kid, here comes another one!" declaration was just a clever ruse to throw off his/her concentration, or tall enough to fully block you out from reaching out over their head from three rows back) then you're setting a very poor example for that child. He, or she, will grow up expecting people to just give them foul balls at baseball games... and wouldn't that be a terrible way to grow up?
May 19, 2008 at 11:19 AM
LH - totally agree, what kind of world is this if we just start giving foul balls to kids because they are short, weak, and still optimistic about life?
The better lesson is to tell them: "Son, this world is rough and if a man's gonna make it he's gotta be tough and if just give you this baseball that wouldn't help you at all. So I stepped on your toes and grabbed the ball from your hands to make you strong. Now you just fought one hell of a fight and I know you hate me and you got the right to kill me now and I wouldn't blame you if you do. But ya ought to thank me for the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye 'cause I'm the 33 year-old son-of-a-bitch that wrestled the ball away from you."
That's why my parents named me "Per."
May 19, 2008 at 1:22 PM
lh, jan - I think they refer to that as the "Republican" theory on baseball-giving to children. Also known as IGM,FY.
I would say if there's no youngster under 12 within four seats side to side, or 2 rows up or down, or in the general vicinity if it's a kid in a wheelchair or a group of pediatric cancer patients or something, that ball is yours. If you have to go out of your way to give it away, don't give it away.
The problems come with the aforementioned father who comes over and is so bold as to ask you to give up your prize. Tough, tough situation there. I would have a difficult time with that one, and would probably relent but make it well known I thought the guy was a dick preying on my niceness, and why couldn't the f'ing kid come over and ask himself if it's so goddamned important to him?
I smell a Seinfeld episode here.
May 21, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Oh, yeah - nice work, bg. All those hours taking grounders at Glen Lake Little League finally paid off. Add me to the list of guy's who have never been close to catching a foul ball at a MLB game, too.
May 21, 2008 at 7:56 PM
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