And here’s the pitch.
The bat cracks and the ball smacks high into the twilight sky. Eyeballs pop, voices cry, and the crowd rises as the ball dives down to the stands. Popcorn is dropped, gloves are smacked, and heartbeats thump as it rushes towards our seats.
AWESOME!
Congrats to our friend Chris Guillebeau who’s new book The Art of Non-Conformity hits stands today!
Photo from: here
I’ve only been to one pro-baseball game, and I was NOT in foul-ball-territory. Sad.
This happened at a little league game of a little boy I used to babysit, though … needless to say, it was much less exciting. People weren’t so much rushing to catch it as they were running to dodge it. :)
Chris Guillebeau, congratulations to you … and you have a fun last name!
Oh yeah – I forgot about the fact that our good friend Laura has been to an amazingly small number of professional sporting events. This has come up before here, and it always makes me very confused, because from what I remember, you live in the STL, where there is quite a good baseball team to support.
Quit being lame, Laura! Go catch yourself a foul ball! ;)
Ahhh! I know, I know … You’re right. I am lame.
Baseball season’s ending soon, though, right? Did it already end? I guess I now have a goal for next summer. :)
OH! AND! By the way, my friend who I told you played for the Dodgers now plays for the Cubs. Because I know you were dying to know. ;)
I have attended baseball games at Dodger Stadium since 1963 and never even had a foul ball come CLOSE to me. I thought I’d never even have a chance at one, but in the last 20 years or so I have caught something like a dozen foul balls and batting practice home runs, so hang in there everyone! Your time will come :-)
And yes, it is VERY exciting when the ball seems to be coming right to you, growing larger as it comes nearer, until you can actually hear it “fizzing” as it spins toward you!
mlz
I haven’t been to a baseball game since I was in elementary school and we had to sit in the far back so no foul balls came flying by.
I did have some tickets to go to a game this past summer, but my daughter got sick the day before we were to go.
This happened at a baseball game when I was younger. The ball goes much faster than it seems on TV.
Exhibition Stadium, 1982.
Rainy day, Blue Jays about 90 games out of first place and we were the only ones in our section. Had we been watching, we would have caught a ball that bounced about 10 feet away from us.
Alas, we were huddling under Dominion-store ponchos and the ball took a massive hop of those old-school aluminum benches and bounced down to better seats.
Sky Dome, 1993.
May have been rainy, but no one cared because we had the option of closing the dome. The Blue Jays are chasing their second consecutive World Series.
Playing a home series against the Brewers. BJ Surhoff fouls a high ball down the first base line. Caught by a kind old man in the seat directly in front of me. He must not have had any grand children, because on his way out of the stadium in the 7th inning, he turned around and handed the ball to me on his way home.
I still have that baseball. Thanks, nice old man, whoever you were!
Foul balls are pure awesome, as long as you catch them! Otherwise, it nails you in the face and you end up on Sports Center bloopers, FAILblog, YouTube, etc. If you’re gonna sit in the section, make it count! :-)
This is absolutely true. For blogs of a same standard go to watz4dinner.com
That should say “Chris Guillebeau WHOSE new book…”
Just trying to help.
Getting hit with a foul ball is pretty awesome too. Sometimes. As long you don’t have to go to emergency. Than, it’s awesome.
I went to three professional hockey games with my step dad. He got hit in the face with a puck in two of those three games. Had to go to the emergency room once.
He was NOT a lucky guy.
I find foul balls pretty scary. I was hit with one when I was younger. Ever since I get super nervous at games if I’m in foul territory.
At a recent Yankee game I had perfect seats with a metal poll in front of us and a lot of arm room to catch a foul ball. In the third inning we went to lunch at Johnny Rockets. Turns out as the people in the row behind us said while we were gone a foul ball bounced of the metal poll right in front of us where my waiting glove would have been.
so so awesome
So true. This actually brought tears to my eyes. lol.
I dont think we play baseball in Oz but at the start of this year at a softball game of my younger brother i was sitting behind a very tall fence with parts of it covering some of the batting place-where-they-bat. And i was reading and not paying any attention, then the ball was so foul that it went up over the fence and brushed my elbow and gave me a big shock and a bruise. haha apparently people had been yelling LOOK OUT! Me and my books, eh?
I recently went to a Rays game at Tropicana Field. Inning 2: Guy one row and six seats away from me catches a ball. Inning 8: Guy one row! and one seat! away from me catches a ball. And then proceeds to give it to some kid. Good thing he caught it, I guess. Because I would have kept it.
But getting hit by a ball is not so awesome though…lol. Nice one :)
I was at a game once and dropped my nachos. Right as I bent down to pick them up, the ball crashed into the spot where my head would have been. Talk about scary.
Oh, and while I was bent over some old guy ran over from the other side of the aisle and ran off with my ball >.<
“What a Lucky Man He Was…”
I’d be the one at emergency.
This is shit! This app is shit!
This app makes me remember how awesome all the things we take for granted really are! Love it