You may have seen someone else. I got ahold of the local MLB broadcast from FSW and saw the same thing that mhendo saw. The camera never looked away from Ross. Although it was nice to hear Vin’s soothing voice on the air during my special moment. 
lieu, that is a GREAT story!
Not very often.
Only when the batsman hits a six, I think :dubious:
I’m not a cricket follower…b-o-r-i-n-g
It’s got nothing to do with being cheap.
Cricket balls are, per the rules, meant to be used for a specific number of overs. When very new, the ball is hard and shiny, and will move around a lot through the air and off the wicket. As the ball gets older, it gets slower, duller, and softer, and these changing characteristics make for different behavior off the pitch. While a new ball might be perfect for fast bowlers or fast-medium swing bowlers, an old ball might give the advantage to a spin bowler. Also, as the ball gets older, it can often become easier to hit.
If a ball is hit into the stands, replacing it with a new one might well give the bowling (sometimes, but less often, the batting) team an unfair advantage. For this reason, if a ball does get lost or badly damaged, the umpires usually have available a selection of new and used balls, and they try to choose a replacement ball that is as close as possible in wear and condition to the one that was lost or damaged.
Basically, in baseball the idea is that the ball should be as new and as perfect as possible, and if it is worn or otherwise imperfect it will be rejected and replaced with a new ball. In cricket, on the other hand, the wearing of the ball over time is actually part of the game, and figures into a captain’s strategy in terms of changing bowlers, setting a field, etc…
Too bad. I was hoping I had seen a Doper Moment!
On the off chance that we both missed something, my mom is taping the rebroadcast of the game this afternoon. The answer will be definitive one way or the other.
mhendo, you’re actually making me want to check out this cricket business.
Of course you gave the ball to your mom for mother’s day.
I can’t remember what it was peddling, but I remember an ad from a few years ago where a foul ball comes up and back into an upper deck. An old duffer with a glove squinches his eyes shut and sticks up his glove blind, as two young guys stand up behind him. One of them barehands the ball, hesitates a moment then drops the ball into the duffer’s glove. The old guy’s eyes light up and he gets an enormous grin on his face as he pulls the ball out of the glove. As they sit back down the catcher’s buddy says, “You realize you’ll probably never have another opportunity like that.”
“Yeah,” he replies, “But it was worth it.”
Personally, the closest I’ve come is when I had a seat right at the edge of the backstop. A foul came screaming off the bat directly above my head, smacking into the back of the seat two rows up. Not really that close but it sure looked it in that tenth of a second it was approaching. I didn’t stick up anything to try and stop it.
basically true, except for being as new and perfect as possible- someone actually spends hours before the games rubbing all the “out of the box” baseballs down with mud (incidentally, they always use the same mud, from the same place- apparently no other mud in the world muddies baseballs quite like that mud )
Back in the early 90’s, I caught a batting practice homerun ball hit by Jose Canseco while sitting in the left-field bleachers. It was a day game against the New York Yankees and still pretty early in BP when Canseco started belting them over. The one I caught went over my head, hit the concrete steps and bounced back my way. I caught it barehanded. Oh, that was also the same game where Rickey Henderson broke the all-time stolen base record.
A had a few people ask me that. My mom enjoys a good outing every once in a while, but I can assure you she has no interest in keeping that sort of trophy. She appreciates what it means to me, but it’s not something she wants to keep in her house.
Heck, she doesn’t even want any of my bowling trophies, and she IS a bowler.
In Buffalo we have the AAA Bisons. I was at a game when I was about 12 with my parents. My Dad was a big guy, 6’4" with huge hands. The foul took a wierd hop off the ground down the right field line. It was coming a row or two over my head.
Dad leaned way over almost knocking my Mother into next week and made and extended barehanded grab. SWEET! I feel bad for the 7 or 8 year old kid that had his mitt out and was sure it was his until the sun was eclipsed when this huge paw came out and snagged it.
Think Dad would give me the ball? Hell no, he kept it on his bedroom dresser until he died. Now it’s on mine.
For those of you who are still following this thread, I have a question. I’ve been debating about what to do with the ball I caught. The obvious solution would be what silenus mentioned, which is to try to have it signed by the guy who hit it to me.
But the more I think about it, the less I like the idea. I mean, yeah, that would be awesome, but the real joy for me is in the memory of the moment. What I think I’d rather do is go out and play with this ball. I’ll get more enjoyment out of tossing it around and knowing where it came from than I will having it sit on a mantle.
But what about the rest of you? For those who have caught one, or for those who dream of doing so – what would you do with yours?
Mine would go on a high shelf with a handful of other special balls I have. Baseballs are cheap, I wouldn’t want to lose or abuse a special one.
Jim
During a Milwaukee Brewers game I was watching on television a couple of weeks ago some guy sitting behind home plate caught 2 foul balls in 2 innings. That can’t happen very often. It was kind of funny when they showed his girlfriend sitting next to him holding the baseballs and the announcer came very close to commenting on her holding his balls. You could tell just when the announcer realized what he was about to say.
We took my son to a game (Giants - Astros, at Candlestick) on his 12th birthday. Got really decent seats in the lower deck, just past the dugouts. The Houston pitcher was at bat (Shane Reynolds? maybe) and hits a check swing liner right in our direction. My son – who brought his glove – stands up and gloves it, right at eye level; just like they were playing catch.
We checked with our cable provider, and they regretted that they couldn’t provide recordings of the game. Bastards.
I’ve never got one…I’ve had them hit on seats next to me a few times, but bounce elsewhere.