The Baseball

by Zack Hample

  Do you have any superstitions? “In batting practice, I never look at the guy that’s pitching the ball. I’m definitely not a superstition person, but for some reason it just overwhelms me. I feel that if I watch him, the ball’s not gonna go where the guy can knock it out. I feel like I’m jinxing him.”

  Best Player Interaction: “I met Willie Mays, and I told him I’m Mexican, and he told me he played overseas in some Latin games. He said a lot of Latin players are pretty good baseball players. He had a lot of pride—he was proud of playing Latin players. When I heard that, I felt happy that he acknowledged not just Mexicans but Latin people in general. That was kinda neat.”

  Media Highlight: Featured on ESPN numerous times for home run catches; covered by local news crews showing up at his house during the controversy surrounding Bonds’s 700th home run

  NAME: LEE WILSON (aka “Doc”)

  Lee Wilson (Photo Credit 13.7)

  Born: August 18, 1949, in Hayward, CA

  Occupation: Electrician

  Regular at: Candlestick Park, Oakland Coliseum, AT&T Park

  Total Balls Snagged: 2,000–3,000

  Game Home Runs: “About 60.”

  Notable Balls: Nomar Garciaparra’s first major league hit (which was a home run) and Barry Bonds’s 64th homer in 2001

  First Ball: Batting practice home run hit by Willie Mays, caught on the fly at Candlestick Park in 1964

  How did you get into ballhawking? “Having one thing or another not go quite right … it would be something to do in the absence of being married or having a lot of other good things going on.”

  What did your mother think of your ballhawking? “She encouraged me to go more than I should’ve. She was always saying, ‘Go,’ and dug the [bleep] out of it when she saw me on TV.”

  What is the most annoying thing that people ask you about being a ballhawk? “ ‘What do you do with all those balls?’ That’s kinda gettin’ out of the realm of what they should be concerned with.”

  What do you do with all the balls? “I get a lot of them signed. I give some away. Some I label because it was a memorable catch for some reason.”

  How many balls have you given away? “I’d say about maybe a quarter of what I’ve gotten. There’ve been a fair number of instances where I’ve seen adults go diving and grab a ball away from a kid or knock a kid down to get the ball, and I go ahead and give ’em another ball. Sometimes when I get carried away and jump and get one and realize somebody was in position for it, I’ll turn around and hand it to ’em. I just try to say that’s the normal course of things. I would rather get into a mode of coexisting with a crowd.”

  What is the best thing about being a ballhawk? “It rounds out the experience. The game is fine, you know, the experience of watchin’ the game is fine. Call me spoiled, but I need to get the buzz of participating a little bit.”

  Do you try to get players to throw balls to you? “No. Having been a failed player, I’m more concerned with makin’ plays. I go for the fun of catches more than sheer numbers.”

  Media Highlight: Included in SportsCenter’s top 10 fan catches of all time and in the documentary Baseball: The Tenth Inning for his acrobatic play on the Bonds homer in 2001; featured again on SportsCenter nine years later after making another impressive grab on a Carlos Pena long ball (ESPN mentioned Wilson by name and showed both catches side by side in a split-screen)

  NAME: DAN SAUVAGEAU

  (aka “Mister Ticket Mister”)

  Emily and Dan Sauvageau (Photo Credit 13.8)

  Born: May 13, 1973, in Bozeman, MT

  Occupation: Financial services professional

  Regular at: Coors Field

  Total Balls Snagged: Approximately 2,500

  Game Home Runs: 77 (including 43 on the fly)

  Notable Balls: Roberto Alomar’s 200th career home run, Sammy Sosa’s 299th, and Alfonso Soriano’s 46th in 2006 (which broke the Expos/Nationals single-season record)

  Greatest Feat: Catching two home runs on the fly in one half-inning

  Biggest Regret: “I’ve missed 73 home games in 12 years, and I was not at the game that Bonds hit 762, and that ball landed 30 feet to my left. Who knows what would’ve happened?”

  Worst Injury: “I cut my leg open on one of those seats and got a three-inch scar. I had a couple guys look at it a couple days later, and they said I should’ve had stitches. I would’ve had to miss the rest of batting practice, so I just sat there and bled.”

  First Game Home Run on the Fly: “Ellis Burks was my first one, and I went home and I turned on the VCR and my wife looked at me like I was a seven-year-old kid, thinkin’ I’m crazy. She didn’t understand. You know, they don’t understand. This was the first time I ever caught a real home run during a game, and I go home just excited as heck to record it so I have proof.”

  What does your daughter think of your ballhawking? “Emily loves it. She’s actually the one who gives ’em away when I catch ’em during batting practice. She will find the kids to give ’em away to, and she’ll always be about three steps ahead of me. She’ll come up and say, ‘Dad, you gotta catch one. I already told a little boy up there in the blue shirt that I’m gonna give him one.’ She has a blast, so it’s pretty cool.”

  Best Player Interaction: “I got to play catch with Mike Maddux from my seat. They didn’t have batting practice, and Mike walks out, and he was looking for somebody to bring a ball out and play catch, and I said, ‘I’ll play catch with ya,’ and he said, ‘I don’t have a ball.’ Well, I had one, so we stood there and played catch for probably 20 minutes before the other guy came out, and then once the other guy came out—I don’t even remember who it was—we played three-way catch for the next 10, 15 minutes.”

  Media Highlight: “When I caught the two in an inning, I had Good Morning America and the Today show call me and want to interview me, but I was headin’ out of town the next day to go on a golf trip, so I passed up goin’ on both of those ’cause I had a plan forever. I couldn’t tell my dad, ‘I’m not goin’ on the golf trip because I have to be on the Today show.’ ” (Note: Sauvageau was later featured on FOX’s You Gotta See This.)

  NAME: GREG DRYDEN (aka “Waldo”)

  Greg Dryden (Photo Credit 13.9)

  Born: October 13, 1961, in Minneapolis, MN

  Occupation: “I work on cars, do landscaping, do some mowing, wintertime I shovel—just a laborer.”

  Regular at: The Metrodome, Target Field

  Total Balls Snagged: Approximately 2,500

  Game Home Runs: “At least 50” (plus a few dozen ground-rule doubles)

  Notable Balls: Jim Thome’s 299th career home run, Rocco Baldelli’s first career grand slam, and a Todd Sears walk-off homer

  How did you get into ballhawking? “I was trying to get my kid away from wanting to collect Pokemon cards and trying to make baseball exciting for him. Next thing you know, instead of going to five or six games a year, I started going to 20 or 30, and then I was like, ‘I wanna try a perfect season.’ Do you know how hard it is to go to 81 games a year? That’s a lot of work—stayin’ healthy. You come sick or you got a bad tooth or whatever, you know? I was still there, cheerin’ for the Twins.”

  How many consecutive games did you attend? “Five years and 68 games. I missed game 13 in ’04 and then never missed another game at the Dome, countin’ playoff games too.”

  What do you do with all the balls? “If I’ve kept any baseball, it’s got an autograph on it. I’ll carry baseballs around with me wherever I go.… Everybody always freaks out—‘You want me to sign a major league ball?’ Marie Osmond? Holy cow. She came out of her limo, and I asked her if she could sign, and I handed her a baseball, and I said, ‘But I need you to sign the sweet spot.’ She goes, ‘I’ve heard about that. What is the sweet spot?’ So I got to rub elbows with her, and I hooked her up with one. I said, ‘Here’s a batting practice ball from the Metrodome.’ She goes, ‘Really?! This is my first baseball!’ and I says, ‘See? Baseballs are fun.�
�� She blew everybody off and sat and BS’d with me for about five minutes.”

  Best Player Interaction: “When Torii Hunter came out every game, right before the first pitch, I would stand up and go, ‘Heeeeeey, Hunter!’ and then everybody around me would start clappin’ and Torii would turn around, give me a chest pump, and point right to me.”

  Worst Player Interaction: “There were players that would reach up and try to catch a ball hangin’ off the wall kinda like what Hunter would do, you know, robbin’ people, and I’d be hangin’ the other way. Jose Cruz Jr. came up and smacked me in the nuts with his glove ’cause he thought I was gonna steal it from him. He climbed up the wall and gave me a low blow.”

  Media Highlight: Got his nickname from Twins TV announcer Bert Blyleven, who kept spotting him catching baseballs in the stands and started referring to him on-air as “Waldo” after seeing him catch a Rocco Baldelli grand slam

  TOP 10 MEMORABLE BALLHAWKING MOMENTS

  It doesn’t always take a lifetime of ballhawking to grab headlines. Sometimes all it takes is a single game or even a single moment. Here are 10 lesser-known fans who achieved ballhawking immortality:

  DANNY VINIK In October 2007, Danny Vinik was celebrated as the “anti-Bartman” for catching a foul ball at Fenway Park that helped the Red Sox. With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning of Game 2 of the ALCS, Manny Ramirez lifted a foul pop-up that drifted toward the stands near Boston’s on-deck circle. As Angels catcher Jeff Mathis raced over and lunged into the front row, the 17-year-old Vinik reached straight up above his seat and robbed Mathis with a bare-handed catch. Ramirez ended up drawing a walk, Mike Lowell followed with a game-tying sacrifice fly, and the Red Sox went on to win the game and eventually the World Series. As for Vinik, there was a song written about him by the Boston Baseball Band (which you can buy on Amazon for 99 cents).

  SHAUN DEAN Astros fan Shaun Dean caught two home runs at Game 4 of the 2005 NLDS between the Braves and Astros—the longest game in postseason history. Seated in the second row in left field, Dean caught Lance Berkman’s grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning and later snagged Chris Burke’s solo homer in the bottom of the 18th—a walk-off shot that sent Houston to the next round of the playoffs. “All my life,” wrote Dean in an article on MLB.com, “I had always dreamed of catching a ball, any ball, at an Astros game.… It was special to be a part of Astros history and to have something to pass down to [my] son.”

  LARRY QUESENBERRY Lots of fans, believe it or not, have caught two home runs in one game, but on June 10, 2009, at a Royals-Indians contest at Progressive Field, Larry Quesenberry became one of the few to catch two in one inning. With no outs in the top of the fourth, the 59-year-old retired autoworker made a fairly routine two-handed catch on a homer by Jose Guillen. Four batters later—with two outs and a runner on second—Quesenberry used every inch of his glove to make a leaping one-handed grab on a towering blast by Miguel Olivo. His accomplishment was featured on Baseball Tonight, where the hosts jokingly analyzed his catches and discussed his solid fundamentals.

  LARRY ELLISON When Barry Bonds blasted his 660th career home run to tie his godfather Willie Mays for third place on the all-time list, the ball was fished out of McCovey Cove by a 53-year-old kayaker named Larry Ellison. It was a big deal. Mays was at the game. He and Bonds wore “660” T-shirts at the postgame press conference. They both wanted the ball, and Ellison generously returned it. (Karma, anyone?) The next day, when Bonds connected on number 661, Ellison was back in the water and grabbed that one too. He decided to keep it and eventually sold it for $17,000.

  DOUG ROHRKASTE On June 22, 2005, longtime Pirates fan Doug Rohrkaste snagged three foul balls at PNC Park within a 15-minute span. He bare-handed a Jason Bay foul ball in the bottom of the first, then snatched two consecutive Jack Wilson fouls that landed near his club-level seat one inning later. Rohrkaste told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that in the 30 years he’d been going to games, he never came close to catching a foul ball. “It was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me,” he said. “I never had to move more than an arm’s length for any of them.”

  C. J. RAMSEY Snagging two foul balls in one game? Pretty cool, but not necessarily newsworthy. Catching two foul balls on the fly during one at-bat at the age of 12? Now we’re talking. That’s what C. J. Ramsey did at Rangers Ballpark on August 16, 2009. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Josh Hamilton fouled the first pitch toward Ramsey’s seat on the third-base side, and less than a minute later he sliced another ball in the same direction. Ramsey, who was wearing a glove, reached high over his head for the first ball and elicited a standing ovation with a backhanded catch on the second. “I was, like, wow,” Ramsey told Channel 33 News the next day. “The chance of me getting one was almost impossible, and two is, like, not gonna happen, but it happened.”

  NICK YOHANEK Unlike the other fans on this list, Nick Yohanek was already well known as a ballhawk; his notoriety, however, reached a whole new level after he made one dazzling catch during Spring Training.1 It was April 1, 2009. The Brewers were hosting the Diamondbacks at Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix, Arizona. Yohanek was standing on the grassy berm beyond the wall in straightaway left field, and in the bottom of the fourth inning Corey Hart jacked one his way. Yohanek sprinted 50 feet to his left, reached the spot where he predicted the ball would land, and looked skyward at the last second to prepare for what should have been an easy play. It just so happened that a bikini-clad sunbather was sprawled out on a bright pink blanket in front of him—a young and very attractive sunbather who not only blocked him as he began to drift forward but was in danger of being struck by the ball. The quick-thinking Yohanek sidestepped her and caught the ball right in front of her face as he tumbled forward into a headfirst dive. The play became an instant highlight-reel classic, but it wasn’t the first time that Yohanek, a 30-year-old police officer from Milwaukee, had been featured on TV.2

  SHANE GIFT In a brilliant display of parenting and athleticism, Shane Gift, a high school baseball coach from Gilbert, Arizona, caught a foul ball with his left hand while holding his three-year-old son with his right arm. But this didn’t take place at a high school game, and it wasn’t an easy catch. The ball was hit by Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz at Chase Field on July 28, 2009, and Gift made a bare-handed grab, high above his head with full extension. “That’s some concentration right there,” remarked Phillies TV announcer Tom McCarthy. Gift’s son also displayed some skills on the play; the little guy got ever so slightly jostled, but managed to hang on to his gigantic souvenir soda cup.

  STEVE MONFORTO It wasn’t the catch itself that turned Steve Monforto into a famous father; it was his good-natured reaction after losing the ball moments later. Monforto, a Phillies season-ticket holder who had never snagged a ball, was at Citizens Bank Park with his three-year-old daughter Emily on September 15, 2009. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Jayson Werth hit a foul pop-up toward their seats in the front row of the club level. Monforto leaned over the railing, made a spiffy bare-handed catch, and received some congratulatory fist-bumps from his fellow fans. Then he handed the ball to his toddler, who immediately chucked it over the railing and down into the seats below. Monforto’s jaw dropped as he threw his arms up in disbelief, but instead of getting mad, he smiled and gave his little girl a hug. “I didn’t want her to think she did anything wrong,” he said in a local radio interview—the day before he and his family shared their feel-good story on the Today show. (And for the record, the Phillies gave them two replacement baseballs and a set of personalized jerseys.)

  ROB MARCHESE This one falls into the “epic fail” category. Rob Marchese, a 41-year-old businessman from Queens, New York, dropped two home runs balls in one game on July 7, 2005, at the old Yankee Stadium. Sitting in the front row of the short porch in right field, he booted an Alex Rodriguez homer in the bottom of the first, then bobbled a shot hit by Jason Giambi one inning later. (The second ball bounced back onto the field. Indi
ans right fielder Casey Blake retrieved it and flipped it into the crowd—right over Marchese’s head.) Was Marchese wearing a glove? Of course not. “My son is going to kill me,” he told the Associated Press, “because I’m always telling him to keep his eye on the ball.”

  TOP 10 STADIUMS FOR BALLHAWKING

  There are lots of factors to consider when judging stadiums: ticket prices, sight lines, the food, wheelchair accessibility—you name it. It’s all up for debate, and yet there’s one major element that often gets overlooked. I’m talking about ballhawking, of course. Here are the top 10 snag-friendly stadiums:

  The Flag Court at Camden Yards (Photo Credit 13.10)

  CAMDEN YARDS, BALTIMORE This place was built for ballhawks. There’s a cross-aisle that extends nearly all the way around the field-level seats, a mammoth standing-room-only section down the right-field line, and a gap behind the wall in right-center. If your goal is to snag a foul ball, stand in a tunnel behind home plate, use the aisle to move laterally, and don’t give up when balls fly high above you. They’ll often ricochet off the broadcast booths and bounce back. If you’re hoping to catch a home run, head to the standing-room-only area (aka “the Flag Court”) and stay near the back. Unfortunately, right-handed batters won’t hit balls there, and even worse, you won’t be able to see the batters in the first place, but it’s totally worth it. That spot is usually empty—most fans crowd the front—and there’s a ridiculous amount of room to run. Left field is also great for homers. It’s only 364 feet to the power alley, making the front rows an easy target for both righties and lefties, and because there are so many rows, you’ll have the option of playing deep. You basically can’t go wrong at this stadium.