The Souvenir of Foolishness
If you watch much baseball, particularly in person, you have no doubt witnessed it: a frantic rush for every home run and foul ball batted into the stands. Occasionally, these balls are caught outright, and the happy fan holds up his prize and receives cheers all around. Far more often, however, the batted ball bounces off a seat or a spectator’s hand, and initiates a mad scramble to retrieve it. Grown men and boys leap over one another, and crawl along the floor to snatch it. It would not be exaggerating to say that, for some young boys, the quest for a foul ball holds greater interest than the game on the field.
The same foolish impulse that animates the men who snatch baseballs from one another in the stands, and the boys who race each other from section to section in greedy anticipation, is the same one that prompts fans to interfere with balls in play. The infamous Steve Bartman incident is the best known, but others occur almost daily, with fans reaching over walls, gloves in hand, to scoop up fair balls.
This obsession reached its logical climax in Arlington last night, when a fan at Rangers Park tumbled from the upper deck to the stands below. He had been reaching for a foul ball and lost his balance. He dropped thirty feet onto fans below. Fans in the park screamed when they saw it happen. The home plate umpire threw his hands over his head in horror. The television announcers were similarly terrified. The game was halted for fifteen minutes, and many players were visibly distressed, with several of the Cleveland fielders clearly mouthing prayers.
Everyone loves a souvenir. But is a $16 baseball really worth all that?
Filed under: Current Events, Rantings, Sports on July 7th, 2010
Leaping from the deck was a rational choice. A $16 ball quite likely would inflate in value once the owner earns national coverage breaking his back to catch it. We’re talkin’ ten times that!
To tell the truth, I believe that these frantic grabs are largely unconscious. That is, I don’t think that the dudes who put their gloves over walls to snag balls still in play are trying to interfere with the game on purpose. I think they just get carried away and aren’t thinking about the consequences of their actions. The fellow who took the tumble in Texas was probably entirely unaware that he was in danger.
I have an uncle who nearly died on a trip to Scotland years ago when the wind blew his glasses off while he was standing on the edge of a cliff. He instinctively reached out to grab them, and in so doing nearly lost his balance.
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[...] year I wrote about a terrifying incident that took place at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. A fan in the upper deck, reaching over a [...]