Okay, Jumping On Matcom's Thread - A Baseball Etiquette Question

[THUNDER HANDS]

If a foul ball goes into the stands and lands near you, and both you (who is, lets say 25 years old) and a 15 year old kid go for the ball and you clearly get to the ball first....

Do you give the ball to the 15 year old?

Do you keep it for yourself?

This happened to me and my girlfriend when we went to a Mets game a few weeks ago. I caught a foul ball that had rolled by my seat. Another kid went to get it but I clearly beat him.

I took the ball and wouldn't give it to him. Then I got heckled by some other people in the stands.

I heckled them right back, saying "I've been coming to games for 10 years and never got close to catching a ball. Let the kid get his own ball."

Needless to say, my girlfriend was embarrassed and hotdog vendors shunned me.

Should I have given the ball to the kid? Is that proper baseball etiquette?

BTW, I still have the ball and I'm not upset at all that I didn't give it to the kid. Let him put in 10 years of hard work like I did.

[ArkDem]

1. You have followed the proper etiquette. Heckling right back

would be the proper form for Shea.

[bluestateguy]

2. Prob'ly not

If he made a really valiant try, but missed, I'd probably give it to him, but otherwise no. At 15, kids are old enough to start learning that life is not always fair. If it was a boy, say younger than 12, I'd give him the ball.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

3. from what i have seen

if you get the ball, you keep it.
i probably would have given it to the kid, but i would not be suprised to see a grown man hold on to it either, nor would i heckle or look down on this man.

[loafie]

4. correction

The kid was closer to 10, not 15 and looked really upset when magic rat stole it from under him. It was pretty bad.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. I DID SO NOT STEAL IT

The ball wasn't within grabbing distance. It rolled under a seat and the kid was a good two-seat distance away when I corraled it.

If you weren't ducking for cover trying to avoid getting wacked in the nose you would have seen that.

;)

[loafie]

11. i watched it all go down

and cowered in my seat embarassed to be there with a grown man fighting a child for a ball. Afterwards I got lots of sympathetic looks from the people around us.

[Susang]

9. Are you Magic Rat's girlfriend?

Do tell! :evilgrin:

[Deb]

12. Ten??

Thats just a kid. (wags finger at Magic)

[THUNDER HANDS]

19. he was NOT 10

if anything, he was 13 and a half at the youngest. ;)

[HuckleB]

5. Final edit: Dude! If you don't want to marry her, just tell her.

You don't have to go passive-aggressive, taking balls away from little kids to get rid of her.

;)

I don't chase balls if there are kids around. It's just lame, in my opinion. No offense. Besides, the only balls I've ever kept are the two I've caught on the fly. I've had a couple that came right to me, but I bobbled them before getting them off the ground in front of me. I tossed 'em to some kids nearby. Granted a 15-year-old is getting sketchy. But perhaps you could have tossed it to someone younger nearby.

The best foul ball "catch" that I've yet to see occurred recently in the Widmer Brewing section along the right field line at PGE Park, when the AAA Portland Beavers were playing the Iowa Cubs. A line drive bounce on the ground and up into a coat sleave of a coat hanging on some dude's chair. Now that's divine intervention. That dude deserved that ball!

:)

[Deb]

6. Heck yes!

I hate it when those older kids and adults jump in front of, over and under me to get a ball.

For some reason I seem to be a foul ball magnet but because I'm short have NEVER gotten one.

The big question... Did you lose that girlfriend over a foul?

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. no she's still with me

She flew under the seat when the ball came our way like she found Black Beard's treasure under my hotdog container.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Give the kid the damned ball.

It makes you look good.

I caught a foul ball at a game once while on a date. I gave the ball to the parents of the toddler in front of us. My date was impressed. :7

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. had you ever caught a foul ball before?

I never had, and I came close on many occasions - only to have victory snatched from me by some rug rat with shorter, quicker legs.

[GOPisEvil]

18. Nope. That was my one and only.

I should say that this occurred at a minor league ball park, but the theory is the same.

I don't mind when adults try to catch a ball from their seat, but to chase after one is a little unseemly. Ball chasing is for the kids.

[loafie]

17. you're right

He would have looked a lot better in my eyes if he had given it to the kid. Also, if he hadn't yelled at the crowd and made a huge scene afterwards, that would have been nice too.

[THUNDER HANDS]

21. yeah yeah

Suddenly I'm the big, mean kid-kicking ball-stealer.

:eyes:

[Book Lover]

27. Welcome to DU!

Nice to have you on board!

[matcom]

14. i heard the kid was a 3 year old girl and you pulled her hair to get at it

well, that is what i heard anyways :D

[THUNDER HANDS]

15. sorta

I poked her in the eye, stuck a mini bat in the spokes of her wheelchair, then pulled her hair.

[frylock]

16. i bet your girlfriend would have been impressed..

had you let the kid have the ball. I've been going to games for 32 years, and have never caught a foul either. I had one so close that my friend shoved me out of the way to catch it. No big. But I always figure that if I do get one, I would probably give it to a kid who is sitting nearby.

[matcom]

20. i heard the kid was in a wheelchair and the force rolled him down

the stairs and into the bullpen where he re-broke both his legs

i'm just sayin'

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. hey

Beats the time I had to throw the blind girl off the Mezzanine section....

[matcom]

32. SNARF!

:D

[GumboYaYa]

22. Oh man, there is only one word for that.......

LOSER...:)

[loafie]

25. Agreed!

:7

[Garage Queen]

24. Oh, HELL no! I wouldn't give up the ball to a 15-year-old.

Now, a shirtless eighteen year old with tight jeans and a rippling six-pack - THAT's a whole 'nother ball game.

"Hey, little boy, wanna play catch? Ok, I'll run and you try to catch me!" :evilgrin:

[The Blue Knight]

30. No, you were in the right.

It's not like you hopped over 3 rows of chairs and ripped it out of this kids clutches. If he was a fair distance away, and it rolled right beside you, I'd have it too. He's 15--he'll get over it.

But, you were on a date, and the girlfriend would've definitely been impressed if you had given him the ball. I wouldn't have though, that's for sure. Lol.

[Book Lover]

26. So you're at the game to catch the ball or to watch the game?

You say you earned the right to keep the ball because you've been paying tickets for a decade or more. I'm sorry, but that just does not sound like "hard work."

I'd say that you "earned" (ie, can keep the ball without feeling guilty) the ball if it was clear that it was closer to you than the kid and that the kid wouldn't ever have caught the ball (too far away). Not having been there to see your performance, though, I can't say.

[THUNDER HANDS]

28. well, I just watched the video of that other guy

He dove on top of a kid to get the ball. I reached under a seat and beat the kid who was also going for it by about two feet.

I'd say I got there first fair and square. Had it been closer, say we both got there at the same time, I would have relinquished control of the ball to him.

[loafie]

31. give it up

Everyone here agrees you should have given it to the kid.

[THUNDER HANDS]

33. fine

next time we go to a Mets game and I happen to catch a ball, even if I have to dive off the top of the upper tier seats, plunge 75 feet into the section below and break 15 bones in the process - I'll give the ball to the nearest kid I see.

[Book Lover]

37. I'm trying to be totally fair

to you both... Hm. Maybe if you had bought the kid a hot dog, that would have smoothed things over.

[THUNDER HANDS]

38. so now I'd have to PAY the kid???

What is this, extortion?

It's a freakin' BALL?!?!?!

:D

[Book Lover]

39. Then deal with the repercussions

And it sounds like you have. If you wanted to make your girl smile and the hotdog guys not avoid you, yes, you'd have to grease the kid a little. Geez, man, you live in New York! How else do we get things done? ;-)

[THUNDER HANDS]

41. sorry I live in the suburbs

my parents pay for everything. :D

[Book Lover]

42. Gasp! That changes everything!

You are the lowest form of life, you, you, you liver in Nassau and/or Suffolk! Hie ye hence from Shea Stadium ever anon!

[Bertha Venation]

29. If it were me: it would depend on the kid.

If he's a real kid, like me -- he's got on his glove, he's excited to be at the ballpark, he's paying attention to the game, he's polite, etc.: I'd give him the ball.

If he's a goof, swears, is more interested in making fun of people than watching the game: I'd keep it.

I got a ball once. Fortunately no kids were around.

If there's a little little kid nearby, s/he always gets any ball I catch. No question.

Edit: the foul ball I got was pitched by Nolan Ryan. :wow:

[Sandpiper]

34. Keep the ball

Screw the kid. How many foul balls hit by a major leaguer are you going to catch in your life?

If the kid was 15, they're old enough to get over it and know that life's not fair. If they're under 10, they'll probably just lose it or let the dog play with it.

[sus]

35. yeah. kids should be glad i don't knock them out of the stands,

let alone give them my preccccciiiousssssss.....

[THUNDER HANDS]

36. if he was under 10

I would have given him the ball. By 15 you're old enough to get beaten out by someone who could effectively be your older brother.

[HuckleB]

40. This reminds me of a "King of Queens" episode.

Actually, it reminds me of all of them.

:)

Oh, oh, oh, on edit, can you say "George Costanza"?

;)