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View Full Version : You guys wouldn't know anything about this, would you?



34swtns
07-26-2009, 08:17 AM
"Ballhawks" story today on MSN:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9802806/Fans-play-hardball-snagging-milestone-home-runs?GT1=39002

both-teams-played-hard
07-26-2009, 08:42 AM
Quote from Junior: "Sometimes when they catch a valuable ball, the money is the important thing," said Griffey.

Sorta like when it is time to sign a new contract?
Power to the ballhawks! Make 'em squirm.

godwulf
07-26-2009, 11:38 AM
But when the fan who caught Dunn's 300th home run last week offered it back to the slugger for free, Dunn gave him a signed jersey, three signed balls and tickets for later games.

That sounds like Adam.

I sort of think of homerun balls as falling into three loose categories:

Balls that establish an important, Major League record of some kind; with hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars on the line, everybody should just assume that those balls are leaving the park for an auction house.

Milestone balls hit by a major "superstar", like Griffey, ARod or Jeter; the Big Boys ought to have the sense to know that everything they touch, somebody (namely one of us collectors) is going to pay a lot of money for. They ought to look at it realistically and be prepared to part with a pile of stuff - 'cause if they don't, there are plenty of folks just waiting to plunk down the rent money for it. A jersey and a couple of bats? What are we talking about, a couple of hundred dollars? With some of these guys, it's like they know very well how famous they are, until it comes to something like this, and then they're surprised that one of their milestone balls is actually valuable?

Milestone balls hit by anybody else; an iffy area, in my opinion. The guy with the ball should remember that this ball is probably only really important to the guy who hit it. How much he's willing to part with will vary, 'cause players are all different when it comes to that. Asking for a bat and a signed ball should be, I think, pretty well standard, and shouldn't surprise or dismay anybody. Beyond that, it should be a matter of the catchee very politely feeling out the player on what he's willing to offer in trade. Young players should be made aware that this is probably going to happen and not get surly or resentful about it. The player should keep in mind that, even if he's a rookie earning League minimum, he's probably making at least five to ten times what the other guy makes for a living, and not get stingy when it comes to parting with a little equipment that he might have to replace (at cost). If he doesn't care about owning the ball - fine; if he does, he should grin, bite the bullet, and shell out what's probably less than the monetary equivalent of what he pays to have his car detailed a couple of times.

suicide_squeeze
07-26-2009, 11:56 AM
The first two comments posted after that story (at the end of the article) pretty much says it all.

Ballhawks, lucky catchers of a special homerun ball, or whatever you care to call them, have the right to do as they will in obtaining whatever they feel is just for the ball. To anyone else who doesn't like that? Too bad.

These fans payed to get into the game, they did their research.....if they are lucky enough to be in the right place, well good for them. The owners and ballplayers are filthy rich, so too bad if they don't want to ante-up for the ball they want.

I ballhawk on occasion, and am always offering up a wad of cash if there is one caught by someone else that I am after if. That's just the way it is. I have yet to be at the end of falling rainbow that I was after.....it's a hard thing to do, people. Anyone who does catch one.....man, that's luck.

The next time you see a mornic fan throw back a ball hit into the seats because the fans around them are yelling "Throw it BACK!!".....just remember that that ball has some kind of meaning to someone, and they just threw a wad of cash in the lit fireplace.

suicide_squeeze
07-26-2009, 11:58 AM
:mad: payed = paid.....that's what happens when you are typing fast and in mid-thought.:o

godwulf
07-26-2009, 12:41 PM
The next time you see a mornic fan throw back a ball hit into the seats because the fans around them are yelling "Throw it BACK!!".....just remember that that ball has some kind of meaning to someone, and they just threw a wad of cash in the lit fireplace.

I heard somewhere that this "tradition" began in Chicago, years ago...dunno if that's true, but it seems to have spread nearly everywhere, and it's incredibly stupid, in my view. Yeah, I know, they're "making a statement"...but catching and having a home run ball is just cool, and cool, in this case, rules.

Of course I've also heard stories about the ball actually being thrown back onto the field turning out to be an old practice ball, or a Little League ball, something like that, which speaks to the preparedness of some people, I guess.

When my team is playing out of town, and I see one of my favorite players' home run balls being thrown back, I always imagine myself out in the stands, hurriedly offering up one or more twenties to the catchee. Sure, it would get you booed, but that's okay, too.

grenda12
07-26-2009, 02:32 PM
Interesting topic.

David
07-26-2009, 02:47 PM
Players often charge fans way above market prices for their signature on a ball (Griffy had/has a contract with UDA, say no more), so it is rather rich when the same players complain about being overcharged by a fan for a baseball.

David
07-26-2009, 03:04 PM
He's one of my all time favorite players, but one of my favorite professional athlete 'being mistreated' stories was when George Brett complained mightily about his unfair multi-million dollar contract. Feeling his great financial pain, Kansas City fans started mailing him half off coupons to have his Mercedes washed, etc. Brett got the message and dropped the contract complaints.

David
07-26-2009, 03:23 PM
Actually, what a ball catching fan can say to a player whose agent is Scott Boras, "If your agent caught a home run ball at a park, what would be his starting price?"

David
07-26-2009, 03:36 PM
It would be the ultimate in Karma if Scott Boras started offering negotiation services to fans who catch home run balls. Would players complain that "Boras demands are totally unreasonable" and "All he cares about is money."

sox83cubs84
07-26-2009, 03:52 PM
The idiotic practice of "Throw It Back" did, indeed, begin at Wrigley Field in the 1980s, and has grown to the point of it being a borderline personal safety risk for bleacher fans who don't want to go along with the idiocy.

Since I began Ballhawking in 1991, I have seen a "9+" female pelted with garbage; two older men badly intimidated by the chanting crowd; a semi-regular Wrigley Hawk literally chased out of the bleachers, and kids having legitimately-earned home runs snatched out of their hands and thrown back by adult drunks, all to enforce "honoring the tradition".

In 1994, a fan was tossed from the bleachers during the 7th inning stretch for pouring his deceased grandfather's ashes onto the warning track. I fired off a letter to the Cubs, asking why pretty much harmless ashes were a cause for ejection, but not whipping back home run baseballs, far more likely to cause injury? The first letter was ignored; I sent a second, stronger-worded one and finally got a reply from the security boss, Mike Hill. His explanation; that the home run baseballs being thown onto the field (technically cause for ejection) were ignored because the players expected them to be thrown back, and were alert for them...i.e., a typical non-answer. Hill is still the security boss, and, 15 years later, I am still on his fan S**t List for daring to question the team's policies.

The Cubs care only about the money-hemmorhaging fans (season-ticket holders and premium seat buyers) and the frat boy bleacher drunks...other fans are of little or no worth to them, and they market accordingly. Most of this started when John McDonough (now Blackhawks team president) was the Cubs marketing director. Many fan-unfriendly policies were implemented during his time there...he got away with them because the local media kisses his AQQ in the same manner that the networks and newspapers kiss Barack Obama's.

I'm waiting for the day when a fan who declines to "honor the tradition" is physically attacked by the drunken morons in the bleachers and sues the team and its security force for gross negligence. The prospect of this is not an "if"...it's a "when", and when it occurs, the Cubs will deserve every black eye and flesh wound to it's PR image that it receives.

Dave Miedema
Chicago area

joelsabi
07-27-2009, 12:32 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsF0mPONeZc

this dude snagged a baseball for over 400 games.

"Great. Way to use your elbow sir"

godwulf
07-27-2009, 08:47 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsF0mPONeZc

this dude snagged a baseball for over 400 games.

"Great. Way to use your elbow sir"

"I like to feel special." Uh huh.

I am reminded of nothing so much as that one teenaged boy in 'Trekkies'...if you've seen the film, you know the one I mean. I was surprised that this guy didn't mention knowing how to say, "Please, may I have that ball?" in Klingon.

I snag one to four foul balls nearly every time I go out to an Arizona Fall League game, but only because at the stadiums I normally go to, I'm the only one sitting out in the direct sunlight (which can be brutal here, even in October) and at one ballpark in particular, all the balls roll down to the bottom, to the fence in front of the first row of seats, regardless of where they hit on that whole side of the field. You don't even have to run for it...just wait for it to roll down to you.

Last year I got fifteen balls in fifteen games, and then had them signed by the player who hit them, but the only ball I ever actually caught in the air was two years ago. A ball came over the third base dugout, hit a rail, and then bounced past my face; I stood up, took one step to the right and snagged it with a bare hand, for which I got a small smattering of applause, no doubt in recognition of my advanced years. Every other one I've ever gotten, I had to scrounge around on the ground for.