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Mr. Ballhawk - How To Snag Major League Baseballs
jeffcbay
Posts: 8,948 ✭✭✭✭
Originally saw this entry on The Sporting Blog this morning: Yankee Fan (his name Zack Hample) catches a Home Run ball on consecutive nights .. and it's on video. It doesn't even end there. Turns out the guy is a well-known "ballhawk", their term. Here's a link to his blog which is pretty cool (the part where I got hooked). Some statistics -- through 9/16/08, the first of the two back-to-back HR ball nights:
• 7 balls at this game
• 481 balls in 62 games this season = 7.8 balls per game.
• 558 consecutive games with at least one ball
• 124 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball
• 11 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)
• 3 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)
• 122 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 6 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)
• 20 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium
• 3,758 total balls
He's also got a web site, www.ZachHample.com. There, I found the guy has a couple of books, including "How to Snag Major League Baseballs". I think it's out of print though. There are also some links to photos (personal and baseball-related) that I found interesting.
Another thing I found interesting: on his web site, if you click on 'Baseball Collection' THEN 'Photos' THEN 'Valuable'. The 2nd ball on the list says:
Cal Ripken Jr. BP ball Ripken remains my favorite player of all time. I was never able to catch a game ball off his bat, so this is the next best thing: a foul grounder he hit during batting practice in the Bronx.
So even though he's a Yankees fan (I presume), Ripken is his favorite player. Awesome! Anyway, I enjoyed his story, so I figured I'd pass this along. Enjoy!
• 7 balls at this game
• 481 balls in 62 games this season = 7.8 balls per game.
• 558 consecutive games with at least one ball
• 124 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball
• 11 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)
• 3 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)
• 122 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 6 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)
• 20 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium
• 3,758 total balls
He's also got a web site, www.ZachHample.com. There, I found the guy has a couple of books, including "How to Snag Major League Baseballs". I think it's out of print though. There are also some links to photos (personal and baseball-related) that I found interesting.
Another thing I found interesting: on his web site, if you click on 'Baseball Collection' THEN 'Photos' THEN 'Valuable'. The 2nd ball on the list says:
Cal Ripken Jr. BP ball Ripken remains my favorite player of all time. I was never able to catch a game ball off his bat, so this is the next best thing: a foul grounder he hit during batting practice in the Bronx.
So even though he's a Yankees fan (I presume), Ripken is his favorite player. Awesome! Anyway, I enjoyed his story, so I figured I'd pass this along. Enjoy!
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Collector of Pittsburgh Pirates cards for a slightly less stupid reason.
My Pirates Collection
<< <i>he was next to Jeffrey maier (sp), but jeff elbowed him out of the way at the last minute.... >>
I've read that somewhere too.
IMO he wants too much money for his batting practice stuff, but he's good.
My Sandberg topps basic set
My Sandberg Topps Master set