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View Full Version : Why won't they let you keep a bat swung into the stands



stasman
05-28-2014, 06:24 PM
If you didn't see it, in Chicago a couple days ago, Tyler Flowers loses his bat during a swing and it fly's into the stands. A woman makes a great catch to save the baby behind her. She's national news.. I just heard that they took that bat and gave her another of Flowers signed by him.
Why wouldn't they let her keep that bat like catching a ball? Could you argue and keep that bat? Would they throw you out if you refused to give it back? I know if the player would want it back it would be the right thing to do, but what a cool item to keep. What's your feelings?

lakeerie92
05-28-2014, 10:10 PM
I have seen it several times and every time I have seen it they let the person keep the bat. I have seen it at Turner Field and Petco Park. They in all cases took the bat temporarily because you are not allowed to keep bats in the stadium.

metsbats
05-29-2014, 05:28 AM
Players take the good quality bats from the set of bats sent to them and reserve them as game bats. All the rest most likely become BP bats so there's a good chance they want those game bats back.

coxfan
05-29-2014, 10:01 AM
Players specify the kind of bats they want, including weight, whether cupped, etc. and those are included in the order to the factory. Many arrive with the players's names on them. Some stars have social signature deals with the factory. So a bat's more personalized than a ball.

stasman
05-29-2014, 12:13 PM
But could you refuse to give it back? Just wondering.

metsbats
05-29-2014, 08:14 PM
Food and Beverage
Visit nationals.com/concessions for food and beverage information. Also see OUTSIDE FOOD AND BEVERAGE.
Foul Balls, Home Run Balls and Bats
All guests are asked to stay alert throughout the game for foul balls or bats that might leave the playing area. See INJURY DISCLAIMER. Guests are permitted to keep all foul and home run balls that are hit into the seats, but are asked to be cautious and courteous to others when collecting a ball. Bats entering the stands must be returned if requested by the Nationals or visiting team. Guests are prohibited from throwing balls back onto the field. Violators are subject to ejection or possible arrest. Any guest that interferes with a ball in play or the game in any way is subject to ejection from Nationals Park. See GUEST CONDUCT POLICY (General Guidelines).


I found this on the Nat's website. I could not find any similiar rule on the Mets website. Each team may have a different policy on bats.

metsbats
05-29-2014, 08:22 PM
But could you refuse to give it back? Just wondering.


You can probably refuse and ask to see the stadium rule that states you must give it back at the request of the player.

stasman
05-29-2014, 08:30 PM
Interesting.

coxfan
05-30-2014, 09:56 AM
Thanks, Metsbats. It's smart for teams to create and publish policy, especially with all the lawyers and frivolous suits around these days. Nearly a century ago, a little boy was taken to jail for refusing to return a foul at an MLB game. ( I've forgotten which team.) The judge ruled the next day he'd done nothing wrong, and soon everybody was allowing fouls to be kept.

in the 1840's through 1860's or so, balls were hand- made by whoever happened to be available locally who knew how. Those balls varied a lot, and it was part of strategy for teams to try to provide livelier or deader balls, or even lighter or darker covered ones, depending on their strengths and those of their opponent. If a ball went out of play, they usually stopped play until it could be found.

Until recent years, college teams sent kids to retrieve foul balls, and fans were expected to return them. Now college teams are actually throwing them to fans. Fast-pitch softball games in colleges still require balls to be returned. College basketball games use one ball for the game, and fans are required to throw it back. College soccer games use three balls (two kept on the sidelines to be thrown quickly into play) and fans must return any on the stands.

danesei@yahoo.com
05-30-2014, 03:56 PM
Even without a published policy explicitly stating you can't keep a bat, the stadium is still considered legally private property, with your ticket being a guest contract. If you refused to return a bat, they could always remove you from the game and charge you with theft.

godwulf
06-04-2014, 02:12 PM
Not all MLB stadiums prohibit having bats in the stands. Chase Field never has, for one. On the other hand, I've been to Minor League fields, like Kino Stadium in Tucson or Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, where if you bought a gamer in the team shop, you either had to take it out to your car right then or pick it up after the game.

I don't see how someone who refused to give a bat back to a player would have a legal leg to stand on. The fact that something falls into your lap during the course of the game doesn't convey ownership. If the guy sitting next to you accidentally drops his wallet at your feet while paying for his beer and you pick it up, do you get to keep it? If a player falls over the wall trying to field a foul ball, do you get to keep HIM? :D

I don't think I've ever been to a minor league game where they made you give foul balls back, although I can see it maybe happening in the very low minors, where budgets are extremely tight. In the Arizona Fall League, only the Giants make you give them up when they're playing at Scottsdale Stadium. The policy during Arizona League games seems to vary from year to year; I've seen them sending players out to demand balls back from little kids, and I've seen one kid collect a dozen balls in the course of a game and no one says a word to him.

By the way, I'd always read that in Japan they demand that foul balls be given back - sometimes not very nicely - but I was talking to a Japanese tourist last year and he told me that the teams aren't really doing that so much any more.

stasman
06-05-2014, 07:53 AM
That makes sense..

sox83cubs84
06-05-2014, 08:28 PM
Not all MLB stadiums prohibit having bats in the stands. Chase Field never has, for one. On the other hand, I've been to Minor League fields, like Kino Stadium in Tucson or Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, where if you bought a gamer in the team shop, you either had to take it out to your car right then or pick it up after the game.

I don't see how someone who refused to give a bat back to a player would have a legal leg to stand on. The fact that something falls into your lap during the course of the game doesn't convey ownership. If the guy sitting next to you accidentally drops his wallet at your feet while paying for his beer and you pick it up, do you get to keep it? If a player falls over the wall trying to field a foul ball, do you get to keep HIM? :D

I don't think I've ever been to a minor league game where they made you give foul balls back, although I can see it maybe happening in the very low minors, where budgets are extremely tight. In the Arizona Fall League, only the Giants make you give them up when they're playing at Scottsdale Stadium. The policy during Arizona League games seems to vary from year to year; I've seen them sending players out to demand balls back from little kids, and I've seen one kid collect a dozen balls in the course of a game and no one says a word to him.

By the way, I'd always read that in Japan they demand that foul balls be given back - sometimes not very nicely - but I was talking to a Japanese tourist last year and he told me that the teams aren't really doing that so much any more.

This is going back to the 1980s, but, while they wouldn't hassle fans in the park who caught a foul ball, both the defunct Evansville Triplets and Kenosha Twins sent someone out to retrieve foul balls that left the stadium. In Kenosha, the retriever was a park vendor who sold them, and usually got his way by being nasty and loud. If you got past his yelling and screaming without caving in, though, he'd give up. In Evansville, though, the team actually called the police when a Chicago Ballhawk (not me) refused to return a "roof ball", as such out-of-the-park foul balls were called.

Dave Miedema