Meatstick Opinion: Catching a Foul Ball

In a recent post I talked about how one of the greatest moments in a sports fan life is the day they catch a foul ball. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. Major League Baseball's all time stolen base leader, the retired Rickey Henderson, recently caught a foul ball in the stands at a San Francisco Giants game. The story doesn't end there. Rickey was then badgered by people sitting nearby for him to give the ball to a little kid. Rickey kept the ball and didn't relent. He proved my point about the significance of catching a foul ball by saying:

"Everybody was asking me for the ball," Henderson said Tuesday, according to the Star-Ledger of Newark. "I said, 'You're not getting this ball. I always wanted to get a foul ball. This one's going on a shelf at home."

Here is a man that has almost 300 career homeruns, more stolen bases than anyone who has ever played the game, and was the American League MVP in 1990. If Rickey Henderson thinks that catching a foul ball is a big deal, then you can imagine what it must be like for a schmuck like me to catch one.

I know people who aren't familiar with baseball might think it's ridiculous for him not to give the ball to the little kid. There is a strange cult of parents out there that bring their kids to a baseball game and insist that anyone who gets a foul ball must give it to their "Bobby" or "Jane." I'm not sure when it became common for parents to think like this (maybe it was sometime after the 1994 strike when I boycotted baseball for a few years). I suspect these are parents who didn't grow up going to baseball games and have no idea what it's like to spend a lifetime hoping to catch a ball. I would like these parents to please understand, it is solely up to the person who catches the ball as to what they are going to do with it.

For those of you that like happy endings, Rickey did give the kid a different autographed baseball.