This absolutely made my day!!! What a wonderful story. In the barrage of all the negative news out there, this makes me remember what really matters.
THANK YOU!!!
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Mr. Kepner:
Love your column. Have been reading them to my kids when they were too young to read them alone. They are so well written and a breath of fresh air that we can all enjoy.
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Tyler's tome tells us why baseball is THE American passtime .... Positive, chivalrous, gentlemanly, inclusive. Makes me all misty-eyed (which is kind of embarrassing for a 68 YO fan of the game!).
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@Tom L. I think it’s lovely that it made you misty eyed! The same thing happened to me, as I thought about my sweet dad and how much he loved this great game, as do I!!
Tyler -- write another one of your stories about how the 2004 Red Sox were over-hyped drama queens, what with Schillings bloody sock and all that. Ha Ha Ha. - Red Sox Nation.
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I like anyone in the press box that takes a few moments to breathe and holds off on spouting every statistic. Some silent moments and the sounds of the ballpark are welcome too.
Anyone in a pressbox with a fishing net is alright.
3
I'm 82 yrs old and saw my first MLB game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia (ca. 1948). Sat in many ballparks since then and have never even come close to catching a foul ball. Then three summers ago I was at an AA Manchester (NH) game and left my seat to get a hot dog. Got the doggie, put on some mustard, and turned around to watch the next batter. Guess what? His high pop foul behind the plate landed directly on my empty seat and bounced away. I felt like crying some Charlie Brown tears.
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I went to my first baseball game at Yankee Stadium in 1958: Red Sox 10-Yankees 4. I was 8 years old. A foul hit into the upper deck was caught barehanded by a fan 5 seats to our right.
I have been to literally hundreds of ballgames at ALL levels since: LIttle League up to and including the World Series at Fenway (1967) and at Dodger Stadium (1974), where I got to sit in the press box for two games.
It took me 47 years to snag my first foul ball in the stands, at a minor league game in Auburn, NY, home of the Auburn Doubledays. I was so excited, especially when the mascot, Abner (what else?), autographed it for me. I treasure it as much as I would have had I caught a Mickey Mantle home run that day 60 years ago.
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Is this column a humble brag or a brag brag?
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I was watching the Astros and Cubs at the Astrodome in the last year the Astros played there. I was sitting in an aisle seat about halfway down the first base line, about 20 rows up from field level. A guy was descending the aisle and had just passed me, carrying double-stacked trays of beer, nachos, hot dogs, and god knows what else. I don't remember who hit it, but just then someone sent a laserino screaming into the seats in front of me and it just disintegrated the poor guy's gustatory treasures right in his hands. I mean, the ball took out the trays without hitting the guy and everything just seemed to explode, showering everyone within fifteen feet with various bits of ballpark delights. And the ball? It landed right in my lap, covered with beer and that horrible nacho sauce. Funniest thing I've ever seen and everyone had a pretty good laugh.
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Mr Kepner: - when I grow up, I want to be a baseball writer like you.
I am pushing 70 - so it may take a while.
But your columns are a few that I often share with my friends who are equally mad about baseball like you and me.
Thanks.
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Tyler over the past years has grown to be my favorite writer about sports, in any paper I read (including SI). Beside his take on the events, in which I almost always learn something, he tends to make me smile.
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Tyler is one of the lucky ones who get to the ballpark every day, never mind getting paid to do it, so they have too many chances to snag one. We now-and-again-to-the-ballpark fans remember them well. My one and only was in May 1968, Forbes Field, Bob Veale fastball, Cubs' Al Spangler, overmatched, skies it foul a mile high; one bounce on the walkway and I easily outjumped 3 or 4 older guys, having just walked into the park through the open gates in the 6th inning (yes, they actually did that back then). I had minutes before finished my last final exam, senior year at Pitt, notebook in my left hand. Best graduation gift ever!
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Nice piece -- your work is much appreciated. And I'm sure that kid appreciated the ball. I saw my first professional game in 1956 (Texas League) and my first major-league game three years later in St. Louis. Since then I've been to countless games but have never come close to a foul ball.
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always give the ball to a kid! good rule not only in
the press box, but any where in a ballpark. the most disgusting thing one can see is when some
idiot knocks over a child going for a ball and then
holds it up like a trophy.a fine piece of sports journalism. it gave me a real sense of what a
press box is really like.
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Good catch!
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Interesting piece. And sharing the ball with a kid is a nice touch.
But all that tweeting about tangential aspects? Much A-Tweet about Nothing?
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@Vox
HA !