Fair and Foul

[godwulf]

I've been re-reading one of my favorite books about Baseball - albeit the somewhat different Japanese version - You Gotta Have Wa...and the author was describing how in Japan, foul balls are obediently returned to the ushers, who are mostly, he reports, not very nice about enforcing compliance with the rule.

I was just thinking about how the average Japanese Baseball fan would probably be flabbergasted by the way American teams and individual players normally let a fan keep a bat that goes into the stands. It seems like about ninety percent of the time, the player won't even bother trying to get it back, and when they do, they nearly always have the batboy run and get another one to trade.

I've heard about some Rookie League or low-A teams that were so cash-strapped that they had somebody from the team or stadium going out into the seats to demand foul balls be returned...and I've seen it first-hand at some independent league games. On the other hand, I've been attending some games put on by the new Freedom Pro Baseball League, here in Arizona, and I've so far collected, in seven games, seventeen foul balls and a ground-rule double. That's not even counting the one that left the stadium and went through the back window of my Nissan Maxima last Wednesday night. (I wonder, if that had happened in Japan, whether I'd be expected to return it.)

[godwulf]

By the way, Rob Deer is managing one of the teams - the Arizona Centennials. I didn't even realize who he was till the other night I happened to be sitting near the dugout, and he popped out and tossed the guy sitting next to me a small case of cards that he'd apparently been signing for him. I glanced at the cards and realized who he was. Seems like a nice guy.

[joelsabi]

I've been re-reading one of my favorite books about Baseball - albeit the somewhat different Japanese version - You Gotta Have Wa...and the author was describing how in Japan, foul balls are obediently returned to the ushers, who are mostly, he reports, not very nice about enforcing compliance with the rule.

I was just thinking about how the average Japanese Baseball fan would probably be flabbergasted by the way American teams and individual players normally let a fan keep a bat that goes into the stands. It seems like about ninety percent of the time, the player won't even bother trying to get it back, and when they do, they nearly always have the batboy run and get another one to trade.

I've heard about some Rookie League or low-A teams that were so cash-strapped that they had somebody from the team or stadium going out into the seats to demand foul balls be returned...and I've seen it first-hand at some independent league games. On the other hand, I've been attending some games put on by the new Freedom Pro Baseball League, here in Arizona, and I've so far collected, in seven games, seventeen foul balls and a ground-rule double. That's not even counting the one that left the stadium and went through the back window of my Nissan Maxima last Wednesday night. (I wonder, if that had happened in Japan, whether I'd be expected to return it.)

i think in japanese society you are expected to blend in and have a group mentality since the society is so homogenous. if its accepted behavior to return the baseball to the ushers, then i think it would be disrespectful otherwise. i wonder how many how many baseballs are used during a standard japanese baseball game.

[sox83cubs84]

Back in the late 1980s, when Kenosha had a Twins farm team in the Midwest League, a guy who cliamed to be team security would dash out of the ballpark and demand fans return roof balls (foul balls that arc over the roof and leave the ballpark). Usually, he was intimidating enough to extract compliance, although most of the Chicago Ballhawks of the era weren't sucked in to his schtick.

In the mid-1990s, a former ticket seller for Kenosha revealed to me that the guy WASN'T team security...he was a vendor who sold the baseballs he was able to scare people into giving back.

Dave Miedema