I’m no huge fan of baseball,but it’s the Texas Rangers right?
This Texas Rangers?
Maybe I misunderstand?
Do football players fling a football into the crowd? Intentionally? Do basketball players? Hell…DO GOLFERS?
Just. Stop. That. Practice.
But that’s just my opinion.
No little kid is getting anything from me just because he cries. I. Don’t. Care.
He didn’t cry until you stole his ball.
He’ll get his ball, all right. RIGHT IN THE KISSER.
(disclaimer: i wouldn’t actually hit the kid. but i totally would steal his ball.)
All foul balls are for kids. Adults should always give foul balls to kids. Eject any adult who keeps a foul ball.
My two cents: Going to a MLB game is a rare treat for me. I’m lucky if I can get to one game per year. In the nearly 50 years that I have been going to games, I have not once gotten a foul (or fair) ball. I have a friend who got a ball once hit by Mickey Mantle, understandably this is an object of reverence and a treasured souvenir. I personally would like to have a ball that once got in an MLB game. I wouldn’t build a shrine for it, I would just like to have something that was once thrown by a real player and hit by another.
So most people in this thread think that if I’m lucky enough to finally get my foul ball after nearly 50 years of waiting, I’m supposed to just hand it to the nearest kid? Suppose he doesn’t give a flying fuck about it? I can nearly guarantee you that it would mean a lot more to me than it would to him. So I am never to fulfill one of my life dreams? Sure, you can buy baseballs. But not balls that have been in MLB games.
Why? For reals? What makes kids so special?
ETA: Like BobLibDem says, I’ve been to very few baseball games in my life. If I get that foul ball that’s a once-in-a-lifetime treat and no way am I giving it up to some bratty little kid who doesn’t even understand the significance.
As an aside, anyone who things people only act this way at MLB games are cordially to come on down to First Energy Park for a Lakewood Blueclaws game.
We’ll go to a mid-week game with questionable weather, when there’s under 500 people in the park. We’ll get seats way down the first-base line, with no one within 100 feet of us.
And we’ll watch grown adults tearing-ass through the stands, pushing each other over, to get to a ball that landed 10 feet away from us.
Buncha savages out there…
Yeah, if I just wanted a baseball, I could just go to a Lansing Lugnuts game. I’ve gotten a foul there once without a kid in sight. I can’t see going bananas for a minor league foul, but an MLB foul is another story.
If you’re enough of a fan to care about the “significance” of a three dollar toy, why don’t you just go to more games?
Seriously people. I love baseball. I hate kids. But it’s one foul ball from one of approximately 837 games that season. There is no “significance.” If you want a souvenir then buy one, like a grownup.
And if the kid wants a souvenir, let him grow up and attend enough games to get his own.
Wow. You know, I *expect *a three year old to be incapable of seeing reason. The only thing worse than kids is adults who behave like kids.
I ain’t getting the outrage on either side.
So a guy grabs a ball while the tike nearby bawls his head off. I saw the footage. Maybe he thought the boy was crying for something else? He was a little one, and they don’t need much to set them off. So I’m not gonna assume he was thoughtless.
However, if he had any inclination, it would have been nice if he had handed over the ball. It’s just a damn ball.
HOWEVER, the kid looked all of four years old. Maybe younger. Everything they don’t get is an injustice to them. The guy was with a woman–maybe someone who he will marry one day. The ball would be one of those special mementos to them. The little boy? Probably not so much.
So it’s all a wash and a big to-do about nothing. IMHO.
So in your opinion, every foul ball must be given to a kid and once you grow up, you will never for the rest of your life be allowed to keep a ball? So if you’re not lucky enough to have attended a game when you’re a kid and have an adult give one to you, then it sucks to be you? I honestly don’t understand your hostility.
It’s a fucking ball. I honestly don’t understand your investment in it. I mean, what are you going to *do *with it? Everyone’s all “Oh, the kid will forget all about it by the end of the day.” Well, you’re gonna go home and throw it in a closet somewhere, or maybe on a shelf, and you’re going to forget about it too. Which is fine, because once again, it’s a fucking ball.
It isn’t just a ball. It’s a ball that was used in a major league game. Maybe the guy who hit it turns out to be in the Hall of Fame. Regardless, I’d keep it around and every now and then show it to my kids and grandkids, tell them the story of how I got it, who threw it, who hit it, where I was sitting, etc. If you were a fan of the game you’d understand. Dorothy’s ruby red slippers were just shoes, but someone paid a lot of money for them. So there isn’t anything that you’ve always wanted to have that isn’t for sale? If your favorite singer signed an autograph for you, would you be obligated to give it to the nearest child? If you were a baseball fan, you’d understand. These are special souvenirs and they’re hard to get. Most kids aren’t going to give a rat’s ass. I would.
I don’t know nuttin’ about baseball or how expensive games are. But I can see how if going to a baseball game is an “experience” to you, then presumably catching a foul ball would be like the cherry on top of that experience. If you’re a sentimental person who likes to bring back artifacts from various experiences, then that ball would mean something. Even if it just ends up sitting on a shelf.
It’s like going to a Prince concert. If Prince were to throw his head scarf down into the crowd and I caught it, I’m not going to hand it over to Cute Little Kid who wants to be Prince when he grows up. I paid $200 for the experience–Tiny Tim didn’t. I have spent 34 years waiting for the experience of touching the hem of Prince’s robes. The kid hasn’t.
Also, I caught the scarf. No one else did.
I really wish Prince would throw his head scarf in my direction, dammit.
I am a baseball fan. I’m just not a crazy person. And unless you are, you are not going to do any of those things, because no one is going to want to hear AGAIN how you caught an insignificant foul ball from an insignificant game. Honestly, I’d hand over an autograph from my favorite singer to anyone who I thought wanted it, because I’m a fan, not a fangirl. It’s a piece of paper with some writing on it. It has no mystical powers and I’m not inclined to sleep with it under my pillow. BTW, while I also wouldn’t pay for the ruby slippers, your analogy falls down on the fact that there weren’t a nigh infinite number of pairs made.
Disagreeing with you does not make one crazy. My grandfather was a baseball fan, too. If he had a ball from a game and told me the story of how he caught it, I’d have listened with rapt attention. As far as I know, he never got to a major league game. If he had passed such a ball down to me, I’d have treasured it as a memory of him. It didn’t work out that way. When I was a kid and went to a game, I took a glove with me just in case a ball came my way. It never did. If some guy three rows in front of me had caught a ball bare handed and kept it, it wouldn’t have occurred to me in a million years that he might give it to me. Kids today feel entitled because they’ve got adults that want to cater to their every whim. Maybe I’ll get a ball someday, maybe I won’t. If I do, I’m keeping it.
I saw that video on the news this morning. First I thought, why is that hot chick with the old dude? Then I thought, why is this news? Then I thought, those two people just had their nice day at the park ruined by a kid balling about not getting what he wants. When a child cries, are we all supposed to empty our pockets in case he might want something we have?