this one stood out to me quite a bit

Alex, I have been going to Brewers game for about 20 years now. Me and plenty of others have been attending Brewers game and have seen this guy at the ballpark since before you were born so who are you to question anyone who we think they are.

As for the media, they tend to wanna dig up more dirt on players than wanna save/protect them. It was not a pro athlete bias. Its more a bias against the “why the heck does someone who practically did nothing now feel so entitled” Coghlan has worked a bunch of his life to get to that point. And Youngster is QUOTED on tv that he wanted Hanley stuff in return. So for catching a current nobodies first HR ball he wanted a signed bat of a potential HOF’er which would more than likely be worth a $1000 or so. If he asked for Coghlan gear/bats/autographs and such he’d not be getting as much grief as he is now.


Youngster may not be crushing babies, but go look at his “The Catch” youtube video. Didn’t seem like he cared the most for the suntanning lady did he? His knee only missed her by a few inches, she moves any and it don’t look good.

And my words of advice Alex, don’t say you are 13, at this point of your life it does more against you than it could do for you.

then this one

Also, you need to correct your article. The ball was not for Coghlan’s personal collection. The ball was actually for his mother as a gift of appreciation. I know this fact makes you seem like a worse person, but you gotta be accurate here.

and this might be the best IMO

You say that Craig Minervini was “the only respectful Marlins employee in this whole ordeal” but your own post also indicates that bullpen coach Steve Foster was extremely respectful in his interactions with you. Maybe you should change your post to reflect that.

It seems evident from the pictures that you had taken with him that the reason you are so enamored of Minervini is that he put you in the spotlight (however small a spotlight it actually is) by making you the subject of an interview, thus feeding that massive ego you’re toting around. Seriously, try taking a picture that DOESN’T prominently feature yourself in it every now and then.

Also, can you explain what the Marlins’ justification for not giving you the Ramirez bat was? The noticeable lack of detail regarding their explanation makes me suspect that they had a very good, reasonable one, and you just prefer not to acknowledge/admit it.

It’s a shame that they accused you of switching the balls but frankly, given your general approach to this whole “ballhawking” subculture, I wouldn’t put you above doing exactly that. Your goal is to give yourself every advantage in pursuit of the best possible paraphernalia, right? If you’re willing to lie about being a Marlins fan in order to get a better souvenir, why wouldn’t you be willing to lie about which ball was the homerun ball in order to keep a better souvenir? After all, come on people “it’s [your] hobby.”

Finally, in answer to your hypothetical question: Yes, squeezing an organization for exactly what a rookie player’s first homerun ball is worth to him might be justifiable in the context of pure economics. But on a human level, that still doesn’t make it a decent thing to do.

and it seems he has had similar problems bbefore

I sided with you in the Geoff Jenkins flap, but this is different. Do you have the right to ask for the moon? Absolutely. SHOULD you? Absolutely not. Coghlan is just some scrub who might end up having a cup of coffee in the majors. Put yourself in his place. The years and years of dreaming about making it to the bigs, the hard work, the luck factor. It means way more to him than you. Just do the decent thing and hand it over for nothing. What if you found the wallet of a rich guy? Would you say, “Hey, you make a mill a year and I only make 50k. If you want all your IDs and cards back it’ll cost you 20k to avoid the hassle of replacing everything.” I hope you wouldn’t. You’re not a kid anymore, so stop acting like one.

I’d rather not comment on the person and just focus on what was requested for the ball. To me, the total requested seems like it’s pretty low cost to the team. But someone with ballhawking experience could shed some light here.