Yeah, but I had a link to a cool website. 
[brogue] Aye, you got me on that one laddie. [/brogue]
Jim
Hell - see post 2 while you’re at it:
See?! See?!? I had a vague ephemeral idea of what we were talking about - and I wrote it down. That gives me first dibs right? Everybody else was just expounding on MY thought. Right?!
Just kidding.
- Peter Wiggen
Ummmm . . . I hope you mean one of his baseballs.
4-5 years ago, at a Cubs/Sox game at that dump on the north side which name I cannot utter, a foul ball came down from the upper deck and the wife managed to pin it between her back and the seat (yeah, way down THERE). Two guys behind her and I all had our hands reaching for it til she turned her head like Linda Blair and said (to the other guys) "Get your fucking hands off my ass!
I held on (to the ball, I can grab the ass anytime), but in the melee busted my watchband.
As consolation she bought me a new ESQ, and I got to keep the ball.
I did, BUT when I typed that line it made me laugh - so I decided to keep it in there.
There’s a documentary on the legal battle over the Barry Bonds home run ball called Up for Grabs . I saw it in the theater and thought it was very good.
I remember a Rangers/Red Sox game I caught in Fenway one time where some kid caught a baseball, some dude grabbed it from him, another dude punched the first dude, and handed the ball back to the kid. All on the big screen. 
Hooray for the 2nd dude.
Disclaimer: Of course I realize that violence never solve anything
Jim
Antechinus, I remember the incident (last season, Rangers vs Cardinals) and believe this is that to which you refer.
Our family has had season tickets at Ranger Stadium (and then the BPAA) ever since the original one was built four or so decades back. Never have I seen any other fan there behave so boorishly.
And, as others have mentioned, the ball itself is the prize.
That would be more impressive if not for the penalties levied by Australian law for spilling beer.
Recently, a local college football team stated that given their financial situation, the college couldn’t afford to let people keep footballs that went into the stands.
So they asked people who caught one to ‘see the usher after the game, who would escort them to the locker room to return the ball’. Generally, people were quite happy to exchange the ball for a trip to the locker room and a chance to meet some of the players!
I caught one in the bleachers at Wrigley years ago when I was a kid and all I got was sore hands. They really sting coming in.
I’ve never known any college that let fans keep footballs kicked into the stands. Nearly every stadium has a net to catch most of them anyway. And if they go into the crowd, security people go in after them if you don’t throw them back. That’s been the case in every Pac-10 game I’ve gone to for the last 20 years.
I think if an NFL ball makes into the stands, they’ll let you keep it.
For years, the Atlanta Braves had a promotion\contest where listeners would send their name and address in on a postcard. The postcards were put in a huge barrel, and at one point at every home game (the 4th inning?) a postcard was chosen at random. If a Braves player hit a home run during this inning, the listener won a cash prize ($100? $500?) and also were automatically entered in a contest (amongst other similar winners) for a trip to the World Series. Lots of minor league teams have similar gimmicks - the Atlanta Knights (former minor league hockey team) had “Pizza Hut Power Plays”, where if the team scored during a power play, one could redeem his or her ticket stub for a free personal pan pizza. The Charlotte Checkers (also a minor league hockey team, this one’s still around) does something similar where if the team scores on a power play, ticketholders get a free 20oz. drink and bag of chips from a local convenience store chain.
Perhaps contests such as these got mixed in with the OPs story somehow?
A cash prize, if any, is something new to me.
The ball IS the prize.
IF the ball has some importance, like the player breaks the home run record by hitting that ball, then the fan may sell it or offer the ball to the player in hopes of getting a reward.
There was this kid who caught a ball at a Yankee game that got a ticket to the next game and got to sit next to the mayor.
Not the MN Vikings! They send the security people up to take the ball away, and that causes a lot of bad feelings. Often you see the rest of the people sitting around them helping hide the ball, or pass it on (keep away). Or at least booing the security staff. (In some Vikings games, this is more interesting to watch than the action out on the field!)
That’s why I thought the College response was so much smarter and much better public relations. No security staff hassling the fans, and the one who caught the ball was quite happy to return it to the locker room, and afterwards spent a lot of time talking about it, and about meeting the players. Somebody was very smart here!
Southessex, that sounds similar to a 1970s institution in Pittsburgh.
Pirates slugger Willie Stargell owned a chicken restaurant (a KFC franchise?). It was located somewhere high.
Everyone in the restaurant when Stargell hit a home run got free chicken.
Annoucers (Bob Prince, Nellie Fox) heralded Stargell’s homers with:
“It’s chicken on the hill with Will!”
One of my all time favorite baseball cartoons shows a sign on the outfield fence reading, “Hit this sign and win a new suit!” with the businessman out on the field in suit and tie and a glove standing in front of his sign.