Now don’t get me wrong, it is not a winning lottery ticket or bag of gold, but it also isn’t “Just a ball”.
For a kid it is a ball that was in the game, it was a ball that was actually given to him by Josh Hamilton, one of the best players in the game and likely for a young Rangers fan one of his favorite players. It is something to show your friends with a bit of bravado and if your Dad got it for you it is major mark in the “my Dad is the greatest” column.
If you are a father, it is the opportunity to be Superman for your kid, to provide a memory of the day you spent together at the ballpark, because it is special to him or her it is special to you. Sure you could go to the souvenir stand and buy one, all that takes is a credit card. Your kid knows the difference, you know the difference.
Of course, those are all nice and everything, but quite often the ball seekers are teens and adults seeking out the ball for themselves, often acting like jerks, pushing kids, old folks women out of the way. There are numerous examples of boorish behavior of fans trying to get a ball hit or tossed into the stands. A baseball is no excuse for that kind of behavior, very little is. But the argument that it is “just a ball” is hollow and wrong. If it was just a ball there wouldn’t be the level of mania that can accompany a ball in the stands. Yes, people like free things, but what people really want is to say “I got a game ball at the ballgame”. It is silly, but if you have ever gotten a ball a game it is generally kept somewhere not to be played with. It has a story, it has a bit of the “cool” factor a ball from Target won’t have.
It is very sad that some poor guy, just trying to get a ball for his son had a momentary lapse of judgement that turned tragic. It truly is, because no one thinks any baseball is worth that, of course. But he wasn’t going after “just a ball”.
I get your point; I still have my treasured Fernando Valenzuela ball under lock and key. But, not having heard the comments or the context in which they were spoken, I’m assuming the speaker means “in hindsight” it’s hardly worth dying for. Of course, everyone thinks they’re the brightest star in the constellation after the fact. My sympathies to the kid, his family and to a degree, Mr. Hamilton.
I know Hamilton feels horrible about this. He’s a pretty admirable guy, has used determination and character to overcome some rather large obstacles and something like this will weigh heavy on him. Players definately know what a ball means to fans and he’ll second guess himself for a long time thinking he should have done something different.
It’s also worth pointing out that the guy wasn’t reaching all that far to get the ball. It was a very awkward fall. It looks like he didn’t realize how low the railing was and misjudged how much weight he could put on it. He definitely should not have tried to come in at that angle or lean in front of the other guy, though.
But I have to disagree with the OP. Yeah, it is “just a ball”, especially since this was a foul ball soft-tossed from the field. It wasn’t a home run, let alone a meaningful home run. It wasn’t even a foul ball caught on the fly. And you can barely call it a Josh Hamilton ball - it’s a Conor Jackson ball, the guy who hit it.
It is tragic, and while it is just a ball, I agree with the OP. It only became “just some stupid ball” after the fact, as Wookinpanub pointed out. I hope there isn’t some knee-jerk reaction by the MLB to “prevent” this in the future - accidents are accidents and all the planning in the world can’t prevent every eventuality, especially after the fact.
I got a ball from a game once. Really great story. Legendary Slugger Steve Balboni fouled off a pitch from someone I cant remember, it hit the stands about 30 feet away from me, where nobody was sitting, since the stadium was 1/2 full, and rolled over to my seat. I was totally shattered when I forgot what I did with the ball the next day.
Seriously, it’s a ball. Probably 50,000 wind up in the stands every season. It’s not special, getting one doesn’t make you special. We’d all be a tiny bit better off if fans stopped giving a crap about getting a ball, and simply caught them so nobody gets hit in the face.
It is just a ball. So what? My groceries are just groceries, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad idea to go to the store if I get killed in an auto accident on the way. If the guy got killed because he was fighting someone for it, then he’d be stupid.
It becomes “just a ball” when you risk your life to get it.
I get what the OP’s saying – to a sports fan, it’s a memento of a game, of something you love. But if you’re going to risk injury and/or death to get said souvenoir? So not worth it. Do you think that kid is going to want to go to a baseball game any time soon?
(One think that’s cool about hockey is that players will often flip pucks over the glass to kids. Or they’ll pass their sticks to them after the game.) bup, that’s just sick – blood is near IMPOSSIBLE to get out of leather.
I love baseball. I’m a huge fan of the game, and watch it whenever i can.
And i still think it’s just a ball, even when people don’t get killed trying to grab it.
I get really annoyed with people at the park who dive over rows of seats and push each other out of the way and run over small kids trying to grab a foul ball. Grow up, assholes.
One game i went to last year, i tried to count the number of balls that went into the stands. Including home runs, foul balls, and balls tossed to the crowd by players on the field or by someone in the dugout, the number i got was around 40. If that’s anywhere close to average (and the game didn’t seem in any way unusual), it means that almost 100,000 balls go into the stands during each major league season.
I don’t get the whole “give it to the kids” thing. That ball is fair game until it’s securely in someone’s hands. There’s no reason an adult has to forfeit that fight just because kids are involved.
Fighting or knocking people over is one thing. But I’ve never seen or heard of that outside of someone’s exaggeration. But just reasonable jostling? Nothing wrong with that.
I’ve been going to games my whole life and I’ve never caught a foul or home run ball. Are you telling me I have to give up on that because I’m too old? What, my efforts have somehow “timed out”?
If I ever catch a ball and some kid next to me whimpers about it, I’ll just say “I waited 20 years for this, and so can you!”
I think it has something to do with being in a crowd.
I have seen people who are otherwise well off, jostling and pushing each other to grab cheap 3 dollar t-shirts being thrown into the crowd from the stage.
It is the crowd that creates that effect. If it was only 5 or 10 people in the audience, I am sure no one would even get up.
100,000 balls does seem like a lot, until you consider that around 73 million people attended major league games last year. I would hardly characterize a 1-in-730 shot at a ball as being a common occurance.
I would agree with the OP that it is more than “just a ball” but also readily concede that it so isn’t worth losing your life over. I mean, I have four 5-gallon pails of baseballs at home right now (the spoils of two decades of coaching), but getting a MLB game ball, whether it was a dinger from A-Roid or a foul ball from Eric Patterson would be more valuable to me than all those pails of balls combined. I still wouldn’t go lunging across a handrail for it, though.
Including the idea that foul balls are only for kids. I caught my first (and to date only) foul ball at a minor league game a few years ago. Yes, it wasn’t the majors and I have no idea who hit it, but it was special because I’d been waiting 20 years to catch a foul ball. The fact that going to the game was an anniversary present from my wife just made it all the more awesome.
I look at the idiots scrambling for the ball. One comes with it like he accomplished something, looking quite full of himself. It IS just a ball. I am big baseball fan but the ball they use is only special when they are using it. Once it’s in the stands, it is a trinket.
I went to a Dodger game with friends a few weeks ago. We were in the bleachers by center field. My friend, a season ticket holder, and by all other accounts a sensible human being, actually hurt himself diving for a warm-up ball tossed into the stands by Matt Kemp. He had to helped out of the stands and missed work for a couple of days.
A warm-up ball! And he already has a half dozen of them.
If he was 12, I would understand. But he is 50. He likes to tell me, with great pride, about how he got them. I just tell myself ‘by all other accounts, he is a sensible human being’.
No, you don’t have to be a kid, just don’t be an asshole, and push anyone, or wave it in some little kid’s face." (I think that’s what people were talking about – don’t step on the little kids, or shove them. That’s being a dick)
That’s all. Otherwise, go for it.
For example: I mentioned in hockey that the players will often toss pucks to people. Mainly kids. If you were to lean over and deliberately grab said puck, you’d be an ass. (I read somewhere that Sean Avery started banging on the glass and threatened a guy who yanked a puck away from some little girl. And Avery’s not exactly known for being a nice guy.)