I got a foul ball at Wrigley, bounced right into my hand. It was 19-5 Cubs vs Brewers this year. I got it with 2 strikes and 2 outs.

I went to a fall ball game once in Surprise AZ. A boul was coming right to me and hit the upper deck and bounced to my grandpa. My grandpa gave it to me and I gave it to a little kid--KARMA RIGHT—-Two innings later a foul ball came to me again I reached back over 1.5 rows of seats and made an over the shoulder bare hand catch. Got a HUGE standing O from all 150 people in attendece.

I was on a school trip as one of the 7th graders who had successfully read 1500 pages. We were in the upper upper deck of wrigley down the first base line. I went to get some refreshments under the press booth and had loaded my glove with nachos and a pretzel, and in my right hand hand my extra large soda.

As I’m walking back to my seat, Scott Servais(sp?) hits a foul ball coming right at me. It lands in that raised concrete area where the first row of seats is and hits the bottom of a seat (pretty empty section). So the ball is just rolling around on that raised concrete. Well I dropped EVERYTHING I was holding except my glove and grabbed that ball before a couple of kids got to it. Then I ran back to my seat holding the ball up high in the air like I had just single handedly won the world series, super bowl, and world cup.

I’m not sure who cleaned up the mess. I still feel bad about that. I was totally swept up in the moment.

PS I was a pretty dopey kid back then and some 8th graders tried to steal the ball from me. I was the “Monkey in the Middle.” But I got the better of them… I told on them. That showed them.

at Slugger Field in Louisville a couple years ago. I’m Director for a non-profit group that works every game there. We were in a stand selling beer and sausages down the third base line. With our backs to the game, a player cranks one foul. The ball came right between myself and the guy I was working with (about 2 feet apart) and catches a guy, who I just sold beer and food to, right in the chest. Dogs and Bud flying everywhere. The ball landed on the counter right in front of me. He was pretty dazed after he got up off the ground but wasn’t seriously injured. I gave him free refills on everything and then handed him the ball. Very wild. Since then, we always have one person facing the game (usually me :) ) just in case.

I even got him to sign it…I’ve offered 5 dollars to people to take it from me. I still have it.

I have no story except for when I caught a batting practice ball. It wasn’t a great catch really.

Fados is a great place to grab a drink before the game btw.

back in the days when it was still Comiskey II. A Sox fan buddy of mine took me to a game against the Indians in the bullpen bar – which I actually think is a pretty cool way to watch a game. I don’t remember all the details, but by the end of the first the score was something ridiculous like 8-7 Sox (I remember each team had hit a grand slam). Balls were flying out of the park like crazy that day, so I was paying extra attention so I didn’t take a baseball to the cranium.
Dave Justice stepped to the plate for the Indians, and this ball looked like it had no chance of getting out. I mean, he crushed it, but got underneath and sent this thing flying straight up in the air. The wind must have gotten ahold of it, because the rightfielder for the Sox, who was initially breaking in, just kept drifting back and back and back and but finally runs out of room. I stuck up my bare hand and grabbed it out of the air, standing there on field level in the bar. I turned to show my friend the ball and before I even had time to react, this drunken tub of goo (who was so fat it looked like he’d eaten Meatloaf – the singer, not the entree) tackled me. I fell to the ground with massive mullet man on top of me and the ball rolls away. The Southside Doughboy started to scramble after the ball, but managed only to jab me in highly sensitive areas so many times I thought he must have had twenty-seven elbows. The ball trickled further away, rolling right towards my friend. The fat dude lunged for the ball just as my buddy picked it up, then jumps to his feet like he’s going to fight for it. My friend, a 6’4 personal trainer, just looked at him and shook his head, and Tubby scampered off. Meanwhile, I was lying on the ground, bleeding and far more concerned about getting an ice pack for… well let’s just say I wasn’t worried about BASE balls anymore.

My friend, he kept the ball. He still has it on his mantle. He taunts me with it everytime I come over. He said that’s what I get for rooting against the Sox in their home park.

I got a hand on a Dave Kingman HR ball out in the left field bleachers…..but only for a moment. It was a classic Kingman day….he cost the Cubs a run by failing to throw out Dave Parker of the Pirates stretching a single into a double at about 3mph, but then hit a two-run dinger late to win it.

I did get a foul ball back in ‘83 or ‘84 at Fenway – I had taken my Dad to a game on Father’s Day, and though a friend had gotten some very nice seats behind 3B. In the first inning, Jim Gantner of the Brewers (then in the AL) fouled an Oil Can Boyd pitch off the facing of the roof. The ball bounced once in the aisle and then came to rest in front of the empty seat next to me, where I picked it up.

I tried to give it to my Dad as a Father’s Day present but he insisted I keep it….and it’s nice to have a chance to remember that day and remember him. Thanks, Lou!

I almost caught a Gary Sheffield homer (while he was still with the Braves). He crushed an outside pitch down the right field line where my family and me were sitting. The ball was coming right at me and as I reached up to catch it, some 40-year-old jerk reached right over my hands (I was probably 16) and caught the ball and ran back up to his section like 10 rows up. Closest I’ve ever got. He got booed.

in the left field bleachers first row when a Dodger (forget his name) hit the ball right at me but the guy behind me caught it. I attended with a youth group and so didn’t bring my glove. I was afraid the other kids would laugh at me if I brought my glove so I didn’t. If I had, I would have caught the ball and would have had the last laugh, oh well.

I had my best shot ever. Cubs were winning handily, and a number of people in front of me had started to leave. Soem kids sitting a few rows behind us moved down to the row in front of of my group. Anyways, foul ball comes screaming right towards me. I put my hands up (not to brag, but I have pretty good hands), and it seemed as if this was finally the moment. However the ball never made it to my hands. What happened? The kids in front of me ducked to get out of the way, and a scramble ensued on the ground to find the ball. After about 10 seconds of looking around, this kid in front of me reaches in his hood of his hooded sweatshirt….and pulls the ball out. Evidently, when he moved to get out of the way, it went straight into his hood. He had no idea (he did not have the hood on at the time, which makes it even harder to believe that the ball could actually end up there). If he had not moved, it would have caught him in the throat had he not gotten a hand up. All I could do was laugh.

Someday…

side note – I watched Konerko’s HR agaisnt the Cubs last year land literally right where I was sitting. Problem was, I watched it on the TV on my way to the bathroom.

Back in the late 1970s, my school’s Spanish Club took a trip to Wrigley to see the Cubs play. A foul ball was hit in our direction. One of our club members came leaping over a couple of rows of seats trying to catch it. However, it was caught by a kid sitting by our group. His mom was beaming and telling everyone “He’s only nine years old and this is the second ball he’s caught at a game.” Our leaping and very disappointed club member rejoined with “I’m eighteen and I haven’t caught one yet.”

During cubs BP a couple of years ago, guys are racing all over the bleachers fighting over BP HR’s. A guy is lovey-dovey whispering to his girlfriend being all sweet and lovely and he’s whispering in her ear and a ball absolutely drills him in the cheek bone and it sounds like somebody dropped a melon off the back of the bleachers. So now the guy is holding back tears with seams marks on his cheek. He switches from Cassanova to macho when the medics/security help came, denying ice and saying he’s OK. His cheek swells up like the ball that konked him and he’s doing everything possible to keep from going down in a heap. After the 2nd inning, she takes his arm and out they go. $200 for tickets, great weather in the bleachers, seam marks on you face because you don’t pay attention and your girl has to help you out in the 2nd inning: priceless.

1) It was the fourth staduim in my friends and my “5 games in 5 days in 5 different ballparks” trip while we were in college. It was also the first time I’d been to Wrigley so we splurged, got bleacher tix and got there insanely early to be in the front. Phillies were in town and J-Roll was spraying people in the bleachers with a hose and it was the first home game for A-Ram and Lofton after the trade so I was already geeked. I look up and the ball is coming right for me! So I get my hands ready and the wind takes over. It drops in the track right by Rollins but since no one touched it (and because it was “too high”) it bounces right up towards me. My excitement renewed for a bit until I realized that the ball was going over my head and the guy beside me was about 6’3” (me being 5’8” on a good day). So I used the trick that any small guy who used to play basketball learns. . . I grabbed his shirt and propelled myself upward with it (effectively pulling him down at the same time). I got my hand on it and Mutombo-ed it into the basket where my friends graciously held my feet so they could lower me down and get it. It was cool and followed up by a rocket HR over our heads that my friend turned to see and the ball hit a stair and shot right back to him. Great day for both of us.
2) Dayton Dragons Single A game, with a bunch of law school friends. They have grass seating for picnics and stuff down the lines and we were there. Well the ladies in the group weren’t really paying attention and a shot comes down the line. One guy with us played college ball (although not at NIU) and just casually stuck his hand out and caught it. While everyone was busy congratulating him and giving them their phone number, another rocket comes right at us. Noticing that no one was now watching, I went back to my old days as a bullpen catcher and slid on my knees in front of everyone and took it off the chest. I, like a good hockey goalie, corralled the rebound and we both had good stories and lots of free beer for saving the lives of America’s future lawyers.