Or, if not, how close have you come?
My closest was my buddy sitting next to me, with a screaming foul ball that smashed into his aluminum bottle of beer which was in his hand. The father sitting behind us with his 5 year old daughter was miffed she got soaked by the beer. Our reasonable point to him was that the ball would have done her a hell of a lot more damage.
I had a leaping grab of a foul ball when I was 17 or so, and caught a rebound of a foul ball about 5 years ago.
I think I’ve got 5 but to be fair they’re all from Arlington where for years we had front row seats next to the visitor’s warm up circle. Maybe once every 15 or 20 games you were going to get one. A couple of times an on deck player grabbed it and handed it to my kid.
Out of the other 100 or so games I’ve probably been to in a dozen stadiums there’s only been 2 times it was even close. One Canseco HR hit the cotton candy guy’s tray and fell into my friend’s outstretched hand (made the newsreel) and the other riccoched off a seat behind me into my buddy’s beer cup.
Not a HR or foul ball, but after a Red Sox game, Brian Daubach was tossing baseballs into the stands. He was pretty deliberately trying to toss one to a girl behind me and to my right but I leaned way over, reached out and snatched it.
My buddy got a HR ball from batting practice while standing outside Fenway behind the Green Monster.
My friends sitting next to me caught a foul ball at the 2002 World Series. I’m still bitter.
Closest I came was sitting in the Monster Seats at Fenway several years back. Vernon Wells hit a homer and the guy sitting behind me caught it. Jason Varitek also hit one during that game, as well, but it went over the Monster. Tek’s homer was nice, though, as I had turned to the guy next to me and said “he’s going to hit a homer right over our heads”, and he did, on the next pitch.
Caught a foul ball at a Jays game once.
Caught one on the fly, sitting on the Loge Level (second deck) just off home plate at Dodger Stadium on Mother’s Day about three and a half years ago. It was a foul ball off the bat of David Ross, a former Dodger who was playing for the Reds at the time. Both my mother and the woman sitting in front of us thanked me for “saving their lives,” but in all fairness, the ball was a high pop up, not a screaming liner. And I was wearing a glove. I was very proud of making that catch, though. Got high fives from the people around me.
Early last year, I came close in the 9th inning of a laugher. Unfortunately, some jokers had moved down into the empty seats in front of me late in the game, and as they were quite a bit taller, one of theirs made the catch. I remain bitter.
In that case, Shawn Green (Dodgers, 2003) and Shelley Duncan (Indians, 2010) have tossed balls to me during batting practice.
The OP suggested a move to the Game Room, where most of our sports threads hang out. So done.
samclem MOderator.
I’ve probably been to over 30 MLB games. Not only have I never caught a ball, I don’t think I’ve ever had a ball come within 50 feet of me.
I went with a friend to a Twins-Royals game at the Metrodome in the mid-90s. It was a day game before school let out, in addition to both teams being awful at the time. As a result we were the only people in our section or the section next to us. A home run was hit about three rows in front of where we were sitting, but rather than grabbing it, we let a boy from a couple sections over come and pick it up.
I took LOUNE to many games when he was a kid. He always took my baseball glove. Once we had front row seats. He wanted the glove. Then a player hit a ground ball near us and when I reached for it, It just ticked my finger as it bounced by. If I had the glove, I would have had it.
I’ve caught one of each at Wrigley Field. But even cooler my daughter had a puck drop right in her lap at a Blues game.
I would have caught one if I had been paying attention. I was at The Cell and a foul ball was hit back pretty sharply into the section of seats to the right of me, maybe 15 feet from my seat. I was too far away, obviously, so I turned back around as the ball bounced off of something and came sideways and whizzed right past my head. A lady in the row behind me came up with it.
I caught a foul ball at a AAA game. Does that count?
No!
I came close one time by the left field foul pole at (the old) Yankee Stadium. The section was maybe 2/3 empty, and I did my best to get to where I thought it would land while the ball was in the air, but it came down about 3 rows up from me. Otherwise, never even close in something like 25 MLB games.
The only legitimate chance I ever had was in 1971. As a kid I would always take my glove to every game just in case a ball came my way. For the 1971 All Star Game in Detroit, I figured what was the use since our tickets were in the upper deck in centerfield. Home runs rarely were hit there. So of course, Roberto Clemente hits one and I see it majestically arc right toward me. It wound up hitting off the hands of the guy immediately to my right, then I have no idea where it went since there was a mad scrum for the ball. Had I taken the glove, it would have been a simple catch. As I recall, someone (Johnny Bench?) hit one a bit to our left (toward right field). What I took from that game was as precious as any ball- I had a perfect view of Reggie Jackson’s light tower shot to right field. Easily the most impressive home run I have ever witnessed personally.
About 4 years back I had a home-run bounce out of my hand as I stretched it out above me at PNC Park. I forget who hit it, but the odds are it wasn’t a Pirate. Never got that close before. I always thought a ball hit that hard would hurt, but it didn’t. BobLibDem, as a Pirates fan, I’m jealous. Too bad you didn’t catch it. A Clemente home run ball would be my most treasured possession.
Not “caught” exactly, but…
Monday, August 27, 2001. Pro Player Stadium, Miami.
My buddy and I were among a crowd of fewer than 10,000, and the only two sitting in a particular section of the left-field stands.
In the bottom of the first, the Marlins’ Dave Berg knocked one into the camera booth just in front of us for a home run. After the inning, my friend (who is more outgoing than I am) went down and actually talked the cameraman into giving him the ball. I was a bit envious but I knew he didn’t really earn it.
But I got my chance 3 1/2 innings later, when Damian Jackson of the Padres got hold of an A.J. Burnett fastball and sent a rocket into the row of empy seats about 10 feet to my right. All I had to do was walk over and pick it up.
So my friend and I both left a Major League game with a home run ball apiece, the only ones either of us has ever gotten.
I’ve scooped up about 5 or 6 Minor League foul balls, but never caught anything on the fly.
