Documenting a collection
There's no official scorekeeper for baseball collectors.
If you get a ball during batting practice or spring training or at a minor league game, YOU have to decide whether it counts. What if another fan catches a ball and gives it to you? What about an usher or a hot dog vendor? What if you catch a ball during practice and it doesn't have an official logo on it?
It's your call.
Some collectors count everything. Others only go for game balls. But what IS a game ball? Is it any ball that was used in the game? Does it have to reach the seats on its own? What if the 3rd 
base coach picks up a foul dribbler and tosses it to you? Can you brag to all your friends that you caught a foul ball? What if a foul tip gets stuck in the protective screen...or if the home plate umpire reaches into his ball pouch and tosses one to you after the game? Is it fair to count those as game balls? What if the visiting team hits a home run and the fan who catches it throws it back onto the field and the ball boy retrieves it and hands it to you? Can you count that as a home run? Did you even "catch" it? Or did you "acquire" it? Did you "haul" it in? Did you "get" it? (That's why the word "snag" was invented.)
It doesn't matter HOW you answer these questions. All that matters is that you DO answer them--and then stick with your decisions. These issues never occurred to me when I caught my first two balls as as 12-year-old in 1990 because I had no idea where my hobby was going. I finished the season with four balls and added 14 more in 1991. I tossed the balls in a drawer with some autographs and cards, and that was that. I wasn't thinking about saving my ticket stubs or writing down the number of balls I caught at each game or starting a list of the players who'd given balls to me.
I wish I had.
In 1993, after I'd already accumulated 146 balls, I finally started keeping track of this stuff, and it felt great...until people started asking, "How do you know which ball is which?"
I didn't, and it bothered me, but I didn't know how to get around that. I didn't want to write anything on the balls--I didn't even get them autographed--because I wanted to keep them pure, in their original condition. I thought about using stickers but decided that they'd be too hard to remove, so I tried taping a little piece of paper to one of my game balls, and when I pulled it off, the dirt came off with it. That was the last time I ever put tape on a ball.
For the next decade, I didn't label the balls in any way. I'd come home from games, update my lists, and toss the balls into my drawers and barrels with all the others. It wasn't ideal. I knew I'd never be able to tell each night's balls apart from any others, but I still didn't have a solution. Anyway, it didn't matter, I told myself, because the point was to get as many balls as possible, and I kept the special ones aside. Did I really need to identify all the others.
In 2003, I decided I did, and I planned the new phase of my collection around my 2,000th ball. I had to write on the balls. There was no other way. But what would I write? The date? The ballpark? The player's name? I didn't always know the player's name. What if I ran inside for batting practice and found a ball in the seats? What would I write? The section number? I knew I had to keep the scribbling brief; this was a baseball collection, not a handwriting exhibit, and besides, I'd have to do my writing on the spot, during batting practice and the game itself. There wasn't exactly going to be much time to spare.
The final solution: Starting with ball #2,001, I would write the number of the ball as neatly and as small as possible, as far from the logo as possible...and I would keep a list on my computer--a ball log-- with the corresponding details for each ball.
My friends thought I was nuts. (This is nothing new.) "You're going to start labeling your collection after you've already caught two thousand balls?!"
"Someday," I told them, "I'll have four thousand balls and I'll be able to say, 'The first half of my collection isn't labeled. The second half is.'"
And so, when I caught my second ball of the day on May 24, 2003, I took a deep breath and, with my heart throbbing and my right hand shaking, managed to scribble a little "2001" on the ball.
The first line of my ball log reads:
"2001: 5/24/03, Olympic Stadium, LF bleachers, BP, thrown by Rheal Cormier"
It's not fancy, but I'll always know, and I love that. This new labeling process took my passion for collecting balls to a whole nother level by increasing the connectedness factor. What a great feeling it is to pick up "2472" and know that Ichiro Suzuki, one of my favorite players of all time, tossed it to me at Yankee Stadium on May 10, 2005.
Decide what YOU want to remember about your collection and start keeping track. It takes a lot of extra work, especially if you get home late with a bag full of balls, but you won't regret it. I promise.
Okay, so if I asked you how you obtained no. 2121 or 2222 you'd be able to tell me?
That's cool.
(By the way, how did you obtain those ones?)
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2121: 8/29/03, Shea Stadium, LF foul line, BP, thrown by Carlos Silva
2222: 6/3/04, Shea Stadium, LF foul line blue seats, BP, hit by Juan Pierre, caught on fly leaning WAY over the wall
Any other questions?
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Speaking of labeling, this is what I do:
If a Major Leaguer, or a really good minor league prospect throws me a ball, I label the ball wtih the date and name of the player. I also have labeled the 1st ball I caught on the fly, and balls I've gotten in different places from Ameriquest in Arlington.
Another thing, at the Frisco game yesterday, my father in law snagged his first ball at 66 years old. What was funny, is that a Frisco ballboy was shagging in the outfield, and yelled that he needed us to throw it back. We ignored him. Have you ever had anyone at a ballpark tell you to give back a BP ball?
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I've never heard of anyone being asked to return a ball...not a serious request, anyway. Occasionally, a player will mess around with me and tell me to give HIM a ball, but it's always a joke. I've also had ushers and security guards try (unsuccessfully) to take away my balls because they said I'd caught too many. But what you've described is definitely a first, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's a minor league thing? The few times that I've gotten into ballparks before they've opened to the public, I have not been allowed to keep balls. That makes sense, but for a paying customer to enter the gates at the normal time at a professional baseball game? Very strange.
The balls that you label...are they covered in writing by the time you're through? I'm thinking it must take up a lot of surface space on the ball to record all that info.
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If you were to get lets say 10 balls in a game, how would remember who threw you each one and in the right order that they threw them to you. Because after a few hours of a baseball game, I'd forget exactly how I obtained each ball.
Or do you also document how you got the ball right when you get it?
Nick
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Zack, the writing takes up one panel only. I'll simply write (actual ball label I have): From Esteban Yan 6/29/05.
It nicely fills a panel, and I have labeled balls on display in my game room.
Doppychico-If you get 10 balls in a game, not all of them would be 'labelworthy', like from players. Normally you can't get lots of balls from players, they start to notice you asking different people.
But, the way I remember is I have a trusty (and loving, patient, beautiful) wife who will help me keep things organized.
Zack, I'd be mad if someone tried to take away my balls (stupid guy joke).
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doppy-
I label the balls as soon as I get them, and I also keep a piece of scrap paper (my roster, actually) in my back pocket so I can scribble down the corresponsing details. It's tough because I have to do all my writing in between pitches. Sometimes, I'll keep a ball in my pocket for five minutes until there's a brief lull, like when a new group of hitters start BP and begin the round by bunting. I don't write much at all on the paper. All I need is the player's name or initials. Sometimes I'll write "hit by" or "RF" or something really simple that'll trigger my memory when I get home. If I get more than seven or eight balls, I need the handwritten list. Otherwise, I can usually remember. But obviously, I don't know how many balls I'm going to get, so I just keep the list all the time.
drosenda-
Can you e-mail me a picture of one of these labeled balls? I think every ball is labelworthy, and I think it's funny that you don't. Even if you get a ball under boring circumstances, there's still a story behind it. Right? I find that I can get ball after ball from the players if I keep moving around. In one day at Shea, for example, I might get a few balls thrown to me in RF by the Mets, then head to LF for the visiting team, get one or two in the corner, get one behind 3rd base, get one at the 3rd base dugout after BP, get one right before the game back on the Mets' side, and so on. But yes, I've had players recognize me. It happens all the time, but it's not really a bad thing. I mean, they recognize me BECAUSE I've caught a lot of balls. Your wife sounds great. Tell her I said so. The stupid guy joke? Not as great. :-)
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I label my balls as I get them and I usually remember the order and the details and I document them when I get home.
I'm going someplace in an hour. I hate having to sleep. I'm hungry. I might eat cookies. Seltzer too. I would drink the seltzer. Yeah.
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What's this "usually" business? What happens if you forget how you got one?
I hate having to sleep, too. Unfortunately, I slept until 2pm, so I have to rush to get all my stuff before my 9pm-to-3am shift at work tonight. But at least I'm not tired.
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I retract my use of the word "usually".
I always remember and on days where I get alot I write it dizown.
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Fair enough, son. But don't worry me like that.
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