9/17/08 at Yankee Stadium
Two days ago I snagged six balls during the first 40 minutes of batting practice and caught a Jason Giambi home run in the 4th inning. Yesterday I managed to snag just ONE ball during the first 40 minutes and was so frustrated that I briefly considered going home. It was THAT bad. I was the opposite of a ball magnet; I was a ball repellent.
The first ball, by the way, was commemorative and came from Phil Coke within
the first 30 seconds that I was in the bleachers...so I basically got shut out for the entire portion of Yankees BP.
At 6:05pm--more than an hour after the stadium had opened--I still had just one ball. The White Sox were on the field, and it was so crowded in the stands that I didn't bother wearing my Sox shirt. I just left it in my bag. There was no way to interact with the players or to be seen. I knew that in order to snag another ball, I was either going to have to catch a home run or use my glove trick to pull one out of the gap. Neither option was going to be easy. The seats were very crowded by that point, making it difficult to run in any direction, and there was another fan named Tom (aka "runshouse" if you read the comments) who had a cup trick and was playing the gap exclusively. In fact he'd already beaten me to the first ball that landed there.
When Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr. started taking their cuts, I moved back about a dozen rows and positioned myself behind the tunnel in straight-away right field. This was my view:
A couple minutes later, Thome crushed a deep line drive about 30 feet to my right, and since I'd chosen to stand in one of the few places that actually had some empty space on either side, I was able to dart through a narrow row and make a running catch. It wasn't a brilliant play by any means but it was nice enough that the bleacher creatures applauded despite the fact that I was wearing a White Sox cap...and since this ball wasn't commemorative, I later gave it away to a random kid (with a glove) who told me (when asked) that he hadn't already gotten a ball that day.
Fast-forward 15 minutes. Batting practice was about to end. I saw a player toss a ball to some fans who appeared to look down after it reached them. Had it fallen short? Had they dropped it? Had the ball landed in the gap? Was Tom going to beat me to it? The only thing I could do was run over and take a look, and to my surprise/delight, there were TWO commemorative balls. Tom was nowhere in sight, and I had both balls within a minute. I couldn't figure out how the balls got there or how long they'd been there. When I first ran into the stadium, I checked the entire gap and didn't see anything. Could I have possibly missed them? I didn't think so...and yet they were commemorative, which means they had to have landed there (or been placed there?) while the Yankees were still on the field. It was bizarre, and I was thrilled. Just 20 minutes earlier, I'd been in danger of ending up with one ball, but now I'd salvaged my day and brought it into the realm of respectability.
One of the two balls sitting in the gap must've been there for a while because it had a big wet spot. After BP ended, I held out the ball and took a pic of it with the gap in the background:
Then I headed to the LF bleachers and found Tom who'd brought his copy of my book. I signed it and had his friend take a photo of us...
...and learned that Tom had been hanging out there for the last round of BP.
The game was really slow in the early innings, at least from a home run-catching standpoint. Obviously I was hoping to catch another ball, but with every passing inning, I kept thinking about the fact that I still had the last home run ever hit at Yankee Stadium. What were the odds that there wouldn't be any more homers in the remaining four-plus games? Astronomically low. But it was still fun to dream.
At the start of the game, I stood in the tunnel in the middle of the right field bleachers, shifting my gaze back and forth between the game and the mostly-full blue benches around me. There was one empty seat that caught my eye, right on the steps at the end of the first row of benches. I didn't want to slip into that seat in the top of the first inning because its rightful owner was still likely to show up. So I waited. Bottom of the first. Still empty. Top of the second. STILL empty. I decided to look at my own ticket (which I'd bought on StubHub weeks earlier) just to see where I was "supposed" to be sitting. It said Section 41, Row CC, Seat 26. I started looking around, trying to figure out exactly where that was...and then discovered that I'd been eying my own seat. Wow.
The upgrade paid off.
Scott Linebrink came it to pitch the bottom of the eighth, and Melky Cabrera greeted him by working the count and lining a solid single to center. Johnny Damon, the next batter, took a called first strike, then watched the next pitch miss the zone to even the count at 1-1. The third pitch? CRACK!!! Deep line drive in my direction, practically coming right at me, and I'm thinking it's going to fall short because...well, it's Johnny Damon. Then the ball keeps carrying, and my thoughts turned to something along the lines of: "No way, is this really about to happen?!"
It was happening. The ball kept coming. I could tell I had a chance to catch it, but that it wasn't going to reach the seats, so I jumped up on the chest-high railing (just as I'd done the day before to catch that BP ball tossed by Phil Hughes) and balanced on my stomach (cracked rib and all) and reached waaaaaaay out over the wall as the ball came shooting toward me, and BAM, just like that, I made the back-handed catch right in the pocket of my Mizuno glove. There was a guy on my left who made more of an effort to grab my legs to prevent me from flipping over the wall than he'd made to grab the ball himself.
It was one of the best catches I'd ever made, but unfortunately, because of the black T-shirt I was wearing, my effort wasn't all that visible on TV...
...speaking of which...
I knew I was going to take some serious heat for doing my stupid/celebratory "Cabbage Patch" dance again, but I figured that a repeat performance was the best way to be spotted and recognized. So yeah, I caught the ball, held it up triumphantly, did the embarrassing dance, and then held up two fingers and shouted "THAT'S TWO!!!" in case one of the many cameras were still zoomed in on me.
Let me share a few screen shots of the TV coverage, and then I'll link to the actual video footage...
Here's Damon making contact:
Here I am reaching out over the "R" in the "Budweiser" ad to make the catch:
Yeah, baby:
Horrendous (but effective) dancing:
Two!
Talking once again on the cell phone:
I want to give another big "thank you" to my friend Michael Fierman for taping the game and then putting together a great clip of the footage.
CLICK HERE to watch it, but be warned...this one is even longer. It's two minutes and 36 seconds, and it's about 37 MB, so make sure you have a fast internet connection.
Before the eighth inning ended, a security guard walked over and told me that someone from the Japanese media wanted to interview me after the game.
Here were are:
Fans were coming up to me and shaking my hand and asking if they could take photographs with me and the ball. It was insane. My life has been insane since last night. I've already gotten calls and emails from several TV shows. I'm scheduled to be on the CBS Early Show tomorrow at 7:30am. (I've already asked for makeup to hide the bags that're already forming under my eyes.) A friend in London got in touch to tell me she saw me on CNN International. It's just nuts. ESPN did a whole 30-second "flashback" to my Giambi catch the night before on both "Baseball Tonight" and "SportsCenter." And now someone on Yahoo has written about it and made the unforgivable excuse of calling me a "Yankee fan."
The article actually goes on for a bit, but that's all I could fit in one screen shot. Someone posted a link to it on my previous entry.
I don't know...there's so much more I could say, but I have to leave soon to go back to Yankee Stadium. I'm meeting someone else from the Japanese media at 4pm...a guy who's working on a documentary about the final days of Yankee Stadium and got in touch before all this Home Run Hysteria took place. There are some other things in the works as well, but I literally don't have time to talk about them, and anyway, I don't want to jinx it. But yeah, look for me on "The Early Show" tomorrow. Oh...I just learned that Deadspin wrote about this. Cool. I've heard that my friends in the Scrabble world are buzzing about it too because of the shirt I was wearing. This is crazy. And obviously fun. Look for me at tonight's game. I'll be wearing my yellow "Homer" shirt (Homer Simpson, that is), at least until security yells at me for running around. Then I'll wear something else. I'm bringing an extra shirt just for that reason. If only I could find that Groucho mask...
STATS:
• 5 balls at this game
• 486 balls in 63 games this season = 7.7 balls per game.
• 559 consecutive games with at least one ball
• 125 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball
• 12 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)
• 4 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)
• 123 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 7 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)
• 21 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium
• 3,763 total balls
The first ball, by the way, was commemorative and came from Phil Coke within
the first 30 seconds that I was in the bleachers...so I basically got shut out for the entire portion of Yankees BP.
At 6:05pm--more than an hour after the stadium had opened--I still had just one ball. The White Sox were on the field, and it was so crowded in the stands that I didn't bother wearing my Sox shirt. I just left it in my bag. There was no way to interact with the players or to be seen. I knew that in order to snag another ball, I was either going to have to catch a home run or use my glove trick to pull one out of the gap. Neither option was going to be easy. The seats were very crowded by that point, making it difficult to run in any direction, and there was another fan named Tom (aka "runshouse" if you read the comments) who had a cup trick and was playing the gap exclusively. In fact he'd already beaten me to the first ball that landed there.
When Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr. started taking their cuts, I moved back about a dozen rows and positioned myself behind the tunnel in straight-away right field. This was my view:
A couple minutes later, Thome crushed a deep line drive about 30 feet to my right, and since I'd chosen to stand in one of the few places that actually had some empty space on either side, I was able to dart through a narrow row and make a running catch. It wasn't a brilliant play by any means but it was nice enough that the bleacher creatures applauded despite the fact that I was wearing a White Sox cap...and since this ball wasn't commemorative, I later gave it away to a random kid (with a glove) who told me (when asked) that he hadn't already gotten a ball that day.
Fast-forward 15 minutes. Batting practice was about to end. I saw a player toss a ball to some fans who appeared to look down after it reached them. Had it fallen short? Had they dropped it? Had the ball landed in the gap? Was Tom going to beat me to it? The only thing I could do was run over and take a look, and to my surprise/delight, there were TWO commemorative balls. Tom was nowhere in sight, and I had both balls within a minute. I couldn't figure out how the balls got there or how long they'd been there. When I first ran into the stadium, I checked the entire gap and didn't see anything. Could I have possibly missed them? I didn't think so...and yet they were commemorative, which means they had to have landed there (or been placed there?) while the Yankees were still on the field. It was bizarre, and I was thrilled. Just 20 minutes earlier, I'd been in danger of ending up with one ball, but now I'd salvaged my day and brought it into the realm of respectability.
One of the two balls sitting in the gap must've been there for a while because it had a big wet spot. After BP ended, I held out the ball and took a pic of it with the gap in the background:
Then I headed to the LF bleachers and found Tom who'd brought his copy of my book. I signed it and had his friend take a photo of us...
...and learned that Tom had been hanging out there for the last round of BP.
The game was really slow in the early innings, at least from a home run-catching standpoint. Obviously I was hoping to catch another ball, but with every passing inning, I kept thinking about the fact that I still had the last home run ever hit at Yankee Stadium. What were the odds that there wouldn't be any more homers in the remaining four-plus games? Astronomically low. But it was still fun to dream.
At the start of the game, I stood in the tunnel in the middle of the right field bleachers, shifting my gaze back and forth between the game and the mostly-full blue benches around me. There was one empty seat that caught my eye, right on the steps at the end of the first row of benches. I didn't want to slip into that seat in the top of the first inning because its rightful owner was still likely to show up. So I waited. Bottom of the first. Still empty. Top of the second. STILL empty. I decided to look at my own ticket (which I'd bought on StubHub weeks earlier) just to see where I was "supposed" to be sitting. It said Section 41, Row CC, Seat 26. I started looking around, trying to figure out exactly where that was...and then discovered that I'd been eying my own seat. Wow.
I sat there for the next five innings, thrilled by the fact that the man sitting in front of me (on a folding chair in the wheelchair aisle) wasn't even wearing his glove for most of the game:
This guy wore his glove for Orlando Cabrera, but not for Griffey. Go figure. Anyway, he left the game in the seventh inning, and a couple other fans sitting next to him took off in the top of the eighth. That's when I pounced on the opportunity and upgraded my seat location. In the following photo, you can see 1) where I had been sitting and 2) my new spot:
This guy wore his glove for Orlando Cabrera, but not for Griffey. Go figure. Anyway, he left the game in the seventh inning, and a couple other fans sitting next to him took off in the top of the eighth. That's when I pounced on the opportunity and upgraded my seat location. In the following photo, you can see 1) where I had been sitting and 2) my new spot:
The upgrade paid off.
Scott Linebrink came it to pitch the bottom of the eighth, and Melky Cabrera greeted him by working the count and lining a solid single to center. Johnny Damon, the next batter, took a called first strike, then watched the next pitch miss the zone to even the count at 1-1. The third pitch? CRACK!!! Deep line drive in my direction, practically coming right at me, and I'm thinking it's going to fall short because...well, it's Johnny Damon. Then the ball keeps carrying, and my thoughts turned to something along the lines of: "No way, is this really about to happen?!"
It was happening. The ball kept coming. I could tell I had a chance to catch it, but that it wasn't going to reach the seats, so I jumped up on the chest-high railing (just as I'd done the day before to catch that BP ball tossed by Phil Hughes) and balanced on my stomach (cracked rib and all) and reached waaaaaaay out over the wall as the ball came shooting toward me, and BAM, just like that, I made the back-handed catch right in the pocket of my Mizuno glove. There was a guy on my left who made more of an effort to grab my legs to prevent me from flipping over the wall than he'd made to grab the ball himself.It was one of the best catches I'd ever made, but unfortunately, because of the black T-shirt I was wearing, my effort wasn't all that visible on TV...
...speaking of which...
I knew I was going to take some serious heat for doing my stupid/celebratory "Cabbage Patch" dance again, but I figured that a repeat performance was the best way to be spotted and recognized. So yeah, I caught the ball, held it up triumphantly, did the embarrassing dance, and then held up two fingers and shouted "THAT'S TWO!!!" in case one of the many cameras were still zoomed in on me.
Let me share a few screen shots of the TV coverage, and then I'll link to the actual video footage...
Here's Damon making contact:
Here I am reaching out over the "R" in the "Budweiser" ad to make the catch:
Yeah, baby:
Horrendous (but effective) dancing:
Two!
Talking once again on the cell phone:
I want to give another big "thank you" to my friend Michael Fierman for taping the game and then putting together a great clip of the footage.
CLICK HERE to watch it, but be warned...this one is even longer. It's two minutes and 36 seconds, and it's about 37 MB, so make sure you have a fast internet connection.
Before the eighth inning ended, a security guard walked over and told me that someone from the Japanese media wanted to interview me after the game.
Here were are:
Fans were coming up to me and shaking my hand and asking if they could take photographs with me and the ball. It was insane. My life has been insane since last night. I've already gotten calls and emails from several TV shows. I'm scheduled to be on the CBS Early Show tomorrow at 7:30am. (I've already asked for makeup to hide the bags that're already forming under my eyes.) A friend in London got in touch to tell me she saw me on CNN International. It's just nuts. ESPN did a whole 30-second "flashback" to my Giambi catch the night before on both "Baseball Tonight" and "SportsCenter." And now someone on Yahoo has written about it and made the unforgivable excuse of calling me a "Yankee fan."
The article actually goes on for a bit, but that's all I could fit in one screen shot. Someone posted a link to it on my previous entry.
I don't know...there's so much more I could say, but I have to leave soon to go back to Yankee Stadium. I'm meeting someone else from the Japanese media at 4pm...a guy who's working on a documentary about the final days of Yankee Stadium and got in touch before all this Home Run Hysteria took place. There are some other things in the works as well, but I literally don't have time to talk about them, and anyway, I don't want to jinx it. But yeah, look for me on "The Early Show" tomorrow. Oh...I just learned that Deadspin wrote about this. Cool. I've heard that my friends in the Scrabble world are buzzing about it too because of the shirt I was wearing. This is crazy. And obviously fun. Look for me at tonight's game. I'll be wearing my yellow "Homer" shirt (Homer Simpson, that is), at least until security yells at me for running around. Then I'll wear something else. I'm bringing an extra shirt just for that reason. If only I could find that Groucho mask...
STATS:
• 5 balls at this game
• 486 balls in 63 games this season = 7.7 balls per game.
• 559 consecutive games with at least one ball
• 125 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball
• 12 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)
• 4 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)
• 123 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 7 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)
• 21 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium
• 3,763 total balls
YESSSSSSSSSSSS! Get somebody to reissue your first book, "How To Snag Major League Baseballs, 100 testedtips that really work."
You DA MAN!
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We luv ya' Zack!
Thanks for pimping Scrabble too ... :-)
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Way to go Zack! Very Cool! Hopefully the Mets stay in contention so you can get a playoff HR! No World Series though this year, it will be a Freeway series in LA! lol
For those of you on MYSPACE please ADD ME!!
http://www.myspace.com/majorleagueballhawk
Do I hear 3 IN A ROW???
John
http://ballhawk.mlblogs.com
http://www.myspace.com/majorleagueballhawk
http://mlballhawk.com
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Nuts, Nuts, and more Nuts.
I second the boodleheimer's idea about the republishing.
Aaron
http://districtboy.mlblogs.com/
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3-peat coming up! If any one can... Nice work Zack..glad you didn't do a Greg Louganis over the railing! I was watching the game and when it went out..I thought..nah..can't be...but I was wrong. Wow! chris
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Zack-
Great job the past couple of days. I've never caught a home run ball but it is my latest goal :). I just read the article about you on yahoo like 2 minutes ago and raced over to your website to see if you had seen it yet :).
Emma
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Zack,
All I have to say is WOW, and to think I missed watching both games on tv. Good luck on a possible third HR ball.
P.S be careful the White Sox/Yankess might recontize you during BP.
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Zack Hey Jody Again I Just Wanna Say AMAZING! See You Later
-Jody
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Zack,
I was so excited to see you catch a ball on t.v., my son and I read your blog. Michael Kay was saying; "what are the odds of someone catching two home runs in a row?", if he only knew. Keep up the good work.
- Zuma Jay
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Zack,
AMAZING, ESPN,CBS, do you ever consider yourself a celebrity?
AC
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Hey, Zack. I can't believe that was YOU who caught those HR balls! Our very own MLB Blogger! And I don't care what anyone says. I loved your dance. I was imitating you last night and my husband laughed like crazy. Will look for you at tonight's game.
- http://janeheller.mlblogs.com
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amazeing,, Zack, cracked rib and all,, your not afraid to get hurt unlike Bobby Abreu,, WILL THE HOME RUN STREAK CONTINUE??
http://thet206kid.mlblogs.com/
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ahhh so it WAS you. i was in the hall today (at school) and marco from that game at shea came up to me and he was like, "hey, i saw zack catch damons homerun on sportscenter and i said he must be thinking of giambi and he said no and that he caught both and they were talking about zack on tv. so i ran into the cafeteria and started watching sportscenter and saw that you caught damons homer too. it was awesome. congrats!!!!
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Zack, I'm basically at a loss for words. From an outsider's perspective, this all seems so surreal, so I can't even imagine what you are feeling. All I can say is I hope you can do the seemingly impossible (for us normal people) & get 3. Brian
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This is great Zack! My brother texted me while i was taking a math test and I felt the vibration of my phone in my backpack. Do you think you'll get any media attention if you catch the last home run at Yankee Stadium?
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Wow. Whoa dang. Dayum.
I can't believe you caught two... back-to-back... that's almost sickening.
And every time I saw "the dance" on CNN (ohmigod, you MADE CNN, ZACK! You're like, famous) I cracked up. It was that funny.
Kylie -- http://kylie.mlblogs.com
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wow, just wow...
third times a charm mr.hample
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YOU WERE A SEGMENT ON "AROUN THE HORN"!!!
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Wow! They were just talking about you on "Around the Horn" (an ESPN sports debate show). They showed your two catches, then the host (Tony Reali) said your blog claims you have collected almost "3,800 souvenir baseballs". He asked the panelists whether you were "cool or lame". One of them (Kevin Blackistone) argued for "cool" and was holding up a softcover copy of your book, saying it was "actually pretty good". You have to find tape of this! Was anybody else watching?
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amazing! two nights in a row! nice job zack! isaw you on sportscenter. i didn't exactly see the special they did because i had to get to school. but i did see the preview for it before i left and it looked good. did sportscenter ask you to appear on the show?
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You're getting mention on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption in probably about 5-8 minutes as well. I wonder if they know who you actually are.
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Are you freaking kidding me? Zack, you are a machine!
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Yeah you are about 1 to 2 minutes away from being on it. Your name is going to be mentioned right behind with Gilbert Arenas! Your next on Odds. 20 seconds.
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i saw you and sportscenter. is there anyway you can be at the astros/pirates game friday in pittsburgh.
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They weren't really nice towards you on PTI. Especially Wilbon saying you had a 0% chance of catching a ball for the third straight game. Basically said you caught them all in batting practice because you're 1 of 12 people and wants to know if you run over little kids.
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dude Wilbon totally called you out and said you knock over women and children to get to all the balls you snag
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Hahaha, YOU HAVE TO HEAR WHAT THEY ARE SAYING. Wilbon said you have a 0% chance of catching a home run tonight. put the hample jinx on him!!! He was speculating whether or not you knock over little kids and women when you go for baseballs. He got your total ball record too. He said and I quote "He has caught hundreds of balls at various ballparks, anyone can do that!" I immediately told my dad, uhm, excuse me, 3763. Reially needs to put that in his Errors section at the end of the show! Congrats on becoming a celebrity for a few days!
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Hot diggity dang!! I almost fell out of my bar stool last night at my favorite watering hole when I saw you on ESPN doing your dance. Wilbon is just jealous. Keep up the great work!
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Hey Zack!
I just was reading all the comments about you on ESPN, so I turned on the TV and I saw you on "Around the Horn". I recorded the small segment on my Comcast DVR, but I have no idea how to get it to my computer. I'll do some research, but if ANYONE wants to give some help that would be great!
Thanks!
Max V
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Wowzer, I was reading your blog last night (Wednesday), and read about your Tuesday night Giambi catch, then I actually read the comments which I usually don't, but there were 30 of them so I did. Then I saw that some people were saying "2 straight games, you're amazing" or something along those lines. So I thought, no way, I quickly flipped on Baseball Tonight at 11:19 Central time just as they went to the Yankee game highlight...... UNREAL. I watch PTI everyday on ESPN and Mike Wilbon didn't say too many kind words, calling you a kid, and questioned if you knocked over children and hip-checked grandmothers. He also said that you claim to have hundreds of baseballs. It was pretty funny because Tony Kornheiser and Tony Reali were defending you, asking Wilbon if he had written 2 books, which he hasn't. I'm considering emailing them to see if they could get you on their "5 good minutes" segment where they interview athletes and the like. Congrats on all your success, hopefully you'll get a 3rd straight tonight.
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I just watched the same PTI segment that benrouse03 did, but I recorded it on my Comcast DVR. So like I said in my previous comment about how I recorded the Around the Horn segment on you, I don't know how to get it onto my computer!
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Zack,
You should call the guys at PTI and tell them you where the "Yankee Fan" who caught the two homerun balls and ask to be on the "5 good minutes" so you could tell Wilbon that you actually give balls away to little kids instead of knocking them over. Congrats on your instant fame, lets make it 3 in a row!!!! Bring home a White Sox winner tonight!
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Zack, it's too bad A-Rod hit a homer two outs after you caught Damon's. I guess that two in a row is gonna have to substitute for catching the last homer at Yankee staduim instead of catching the last homer being a cherry on top.
Max V
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Dude, that is amazing!! Keep up the GREAT/AMAZING work!!
Kaybee (http://kaybee.mlblogs.com)
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did you catch abreu's hr?
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Hey Zack,
Long time book and blog reader, first time commenting. I think in the two years that I've been reading your blog, this really has to be near the top of the list of the coolest things to happen to you. It hurts though to read all of the comments people were leaving about you on that Yahoo blog. People were practically calling you a nobody with nothing better to do. But what do they know, right?
I'm from Los Angeles and I really enjoyed your recent trip down to Southern California. I've been looking forward for you to do such a thing for a long time, as PETCO Park, Angel, and Dodger Stadium are the only three parks I've ever been to.
Anyways, keep up with all your snagging adventures on this great blog of yours, and I hope you get better soon with your rib injury. Hopefully with this, I'll leave more comments in the future.
-Karl
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YES showing you signing an autograph!
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Yeah, but while YES was showing you signing autographs in your yellow shirt, Michael Kay was dissing you. He couldn't believe people were asking for autographs. He must not be aware of The Power of Snagging.
- http://janeheller.mlblogs.com
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I agree. He obviously didn't understand that you're not just a "lucky fan"
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did he catch abreu's second home run???i saw him scuffling around for it
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Hey Zack!!
My name is Sally. I'm a Yankees fan and I know you're not but that's ok. My question for you is this: I'm going to the last game ever played at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, how would you recommend I catch a commemorative baseball? I don't normally bring a glove and at this time,I don't remember where my seat locations actually are. Other than the glove trick, how would you recommend catching one? I plan on getting there at around 4:30 or 5ish since I don't want to miss any of the farewell to the Cathedral ceremonies.
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man are you skilled or what!!! so im reading yahoos article about u:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Yankees-fan-in-right-place-at-right-time-on-two-?urn=mlb,108739
and im like wait is that zack....holy cow that is zack
this is my favorite story about the yankees all year except for when i heard Joba Chamberlain got injured....keep snagging, its always a pleasure to watch ur victory dances :D
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oh and by any chance do u have a link to ur segment on the CBS early show? thnx
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Zack - you are the man! I have to tell you Ive been reading your blog all year and made a comment or two. I havent caught a ball in years at a stadium (last was at a single A park about 5 years ago). Well you must be the lucky charm since I go to my first game at Petco in San Diego this year, go and grab some dogs and come back to my seat and not 5 seconds after I sat down a ball comes screaming into my section. It riccochets off a fan in front of me and lands right in my box of food. Too funny.
- Keep up the great work and with all this publicity, maybe MLB will finally hire you as official good will ambassador of baseball!
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Zack, you rock!!
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well it looks like the streak is over. imagine if you pluck a homer ball from the gap! would you count it as a homer? oh, and you wore a HOMER simpson shirt (Homer being the key word.)
also how do you open your glove to catch a ball w/ the rubber band for the glove trick on your glove?
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im hoping someone in school will tell me about "the guy who caught the homers" in school, and i can just be like "yeah, he knows my name." all like cool cuz i know you. and mike kay used the churning butter term to describe the dance. white sox down to final strike. hit a homer uribe!
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the streak is bye bye
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Zack,
Almost #3 off Abreu in the bottom of the 3rd. Was watching the game on WGN. Hawk Harrelson pointed you out in the "yellow" shirt. That you were the one who caught (2) HR balls in 2 consecutive games.
Fun Stuff
Mike in Detroit
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Hey Zack. I've been reading your blog for a couple months but haven't ever commented until now. I was just reading the story about you on Yahoo and was looking at the comments on there. Lots of people saying some negative things about you there. Some guy basically challenged you to fight. Kinda funny. Anyway, I was wondering what games you are planning to go to for the rest of the season? Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading more of your baseball adventures in the future.
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Awesome. Simply awesome. I went to lunch today and walked into the restaurant and there you and your Giambi catch and your dance were plastered all over the TVs. Now two in a row. Nice moves.
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Haha Zack,
They had you on ESPN again, they showed the close call on the Abreu shot, and they showed you signing the autograph!
I wonder if they'll recognize you if you catch any more home runs soon? If I knew someone at ESPN, I would tell them about the Bonds ball you caught. They'd be all over that too.
Nice job, assuming you didn't get shut out.
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Yes, as others said, you are now a SportsCenter fixture. Haha.
C'mon Cubs, of course he wasn't shut out, unless you mean game used balls?
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You never know...
I suppose he would have looked depressed/worried on tv if he was.
I know it's very unlikely, but I worry!
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EVERYONE-
I'm back from Yankee Stadium. I'm soooooo tired. I don't know if I'll be able to blog tonight. I have to wake up at like 5:45am for the CBS "Early Show." A car is coming at 6:30am to pick me up. I'll be on the air at like 7:30. I don't know when I'll ever get to answer comments and emails but know this: I have read them ALL, and I really appreciate all the love. Also, I am now the proud owner of two tickets for tomorrow (Friday) at Yankee Stadium. I'll be there...in the bleachers...with Jona.
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Zack, if you somehow have a ticket for Sunday, you should stop by the Baseball Tonight setup that they'll have. They said they'd be looking for you! how awesome!
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Hey Zack...
I LOVE how the guy in the article is like, "Eat your heart out Zack Hample." Then, later he's like......Uhhhh it IS Zack Hample. Guess you showed him. Have fun at CBS. They tape delay it to the West Coast so it should just be coming on when I get home from work. Also, Tony Kornheiser and the rest of the Monday Night Football gang are staying at my hotel for the Chargers game...on Mondy. I'll talk to Tony about the whole PTI segment and get you some love. I'll let you know how it goes. Take care.
Leigh
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OMG. The gates on sunday at YS open at 1 pm! that sucks! not only cn i not get out there at 1, but someone will end up taking the corner spot for BP. and even if i got there that early, i would like have to rotate shifts with my dad, cuz theres no way i could not have to pee for 7 hours.
are you gonna get there at one zack?
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Why does the article in BIG LEAGUE STEW say "Zack Hample eat your heart out?" Do they not realize that was you????
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Hey Zack,
It's been a while since I last posted, sorry.
Saw you on the Early Show this morning!! Way to go to still show your glove trick in that wind, how was that? man you talked quick!! did they tell you that you had 1 min to get it all out??
What's with that dance??..... you really do have BALLS to do that dance on national TV!!
Later
Stuart Jon
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There's a glowing endorsement for you in this article:
http://www.faniq.com/blog/Video-Zack-Hample-Is-The-Guy-Who-Caught-Home-Run-Balls-At-Yankee-Stadium-On-BacktoBack-Nights-Blog-11957
(scroll down past the video)
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Good for you Zach!
As a kid growing up in Syracuse, NY (many moons ago) I would wait for foul balls and HR's outside of MacArthur Stadium, home of the Triple A - Syracuse Chiefs.
What a thrill it was for me and my buddies to get a baseball. We were high tech back then, with an AM radio to our ear, listening to the game.
Good luck in the future, let us know when you get to the 10,000 ball mark.
Tom
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500 dollars to watch a goddamn game with you? You sound drunk, you should be paying me to hang out with such a nerd. I charge half a g for dweebs like yourself to chill for a couple hours. By the way, you have over 3,000 balls, so dude its time to chill and give the opportunity to actual fans (especially kids) to catch something memorable. Don't come to Detroit trying to pull that ****, unless you wanna get mobbed up on.
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