I would estimate I have caught/picked up about a dozen batting practice or foul balls at Major League Baseball games. With one single exception, I have given the ball to a kid at the stadium immediately! In most cases it never even crossed my mind to keep the thing.

I think I have always chased the warm, fuzzy feeling I got the first time I ever got a foul ball. I was 14 years old, sitting in Section 210 with my buddy Cory and his mom and dad. Twins vs Mariners, 1996.

I noticed a young man at the bottom of the section in a wheelchair that was having the time of his life cheering on the Twins.

“If I get a foul ball, I am going to give it to that guy,” I said out loud to my buddy’s family, never expecting it to happen in a million years. They all kind of glanced over at me and gave me a slight smile, knowing the odds were heavily against that happening.

It’s been 30 years so I could easily be exaggerating, but no more than two minutes later a foul ball came spinning up toward the nosebleeds behind home plate. The ball THUNK’d on one of the many, many empty bright blue seats in our row, rolled down about 15 seats under the legs of several people and came to a stop against my cup of Coke.

I couldn’t believe it. I picked up the ball and I remember my face going flush. It was the first Major League Baseball I had ever held after 14 years as a fan. Despite that, I knew I had to keep my word and I gave it to the guy at the bottom of the section.

Somehow, the camera guy (in stadium, not on TV) saw this and put me on the jumbotron smiling and waving alongside the jubilant new owner of the baseball. After experiencing that, why would I ever keep one of those balls?!

REGRETS, I HAVE A FEW… 

There are a few I sometimes, halfway, wish I’d kept. The batting practice foul ball at Dodger Stadium and the foul ball with the final season Metrodome logo from 2009 are the the two that immediately come to mind. The one I did keep? Thrown to me by Sammy Sosa at Wrigley Field during batting practice in 1998. Sorry kids.

SOME PEOPLE -REALLY- LOVE BASEBALLS 

Earlier this baseball season a woman in Miami made news for DEMANDING a home run ball that had landed near her seat, which apparently made her believe it belonged to her.

 

A website called The Grueling Truth surveyed 2,000 baseball fans to ask whether or not they would snatch a foul ball straight out of the hands of a child. They then sorted the results by which MLB team they rooted for.

CANDY FROM A BASEBALL LOVING BABY

Surprisingly, over 20% of baseball fans say they would have no problem reaching around, over or even through a child to get themselves a free souvenir baseball.

Topping the list of “Karens” as they are called in the study was the nomadic Athletics, who saw 36% of their fans say that they would indeed snatch a ball from a child.

The Twins finished in the middle of the pack at 23%, which still strikes me as high, while Pirates fans finished as the most respectful at 10%.

 

Memorable Minnesota Sports Homecomings/Reunions

Memorable Minnesota Sports Homecomings/Reunions 

Gallery Credit: Getty Images