Valuable balls
Alex Rodriguez's 3,000th career hit
This is probably the most valuable baseball I’ve ever snagged. The "R" stands for "Rodriguez," and the "1" indicates that it was the first specially marked ball of the game that was put into play for his at-bats. Those markings were already there when I grabbed it. The sticker above was placed there a little while later by an MLB authenticator.
Mike Trout's 1st career home run
Or maybe THIS one is the most valuable? We’ll never know. On 7/24/11 at Camden Yards, I caught Mike Trout's first major league homer and gave him the ball after the game. That's why I don't have a better photograph of it here. I do, however, have a good video clip of this bless’d moment.
Last Mets home run at Shea Stadium
This is still my favorite ball. It was Carlos Beltrán's 263rd career home run, but more importantly, it ended up being the last homer that the Mets ever hit at Shea Stadium. Click here to read my long blog entry about the experience and click here to watch me catching it and freaking out.
Mike Nickeas's 1st career home run
Same deal with Mike Nickeas's first career home run. I caught it on 4/21/11 at Citi Field, and when stadium security asked me what I wanted for it, I simply requested to be able to hand it back to Nickeas myself. Here’s the clip from TV.
Didi Gregorius's 1st career home run
On 4/18/13 at Yankee Stadium, I snagged this Gregorius homer in the 3rd inning and caught a game-tying solo shot by Francisco Cervelli in the bottom of the 9th.
Alex Blandino's 1st career home run
May 1, 2018 was a magical night for me at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. I snagged 24 baseballs including THREE home runs during the game including this one from the Reds' rookie. Click here for the YouTube video.
Steven Matz's 1st career home run
This was the first home run that I ever got that was hit by a pitcher, and it was also the first time I grabbed a homer during both games of a doubleheader. This also turned out to be one of my most popular videos ever — don’t miss it.
Robinson Canó grand slam
Remember when the 2009 Yankees became the first team in history to have five guys hit 25 home runs in a season? Okay, you probably don't, but anyway, this is the ball that made history. It was Canó's 25th and final homer, and it was the first grand slam I ever snagged. Here’s my blog entry about it.
Carlos Beltrán grand slam
This was the first grand slam that I caught on the fly, hit by Beltrán on August 8, 2014 at Yankee Stadium. Here's a blog entry about it with a video, some screen shots, and a few photos.
Starlin Castro grand slam
This was Castro's 1st career granny, hit on August 5, 2016 at Yankee Stadium. Surpringly he didn't want the ball back.
Carlos Santana grand slam
SO. DAMN. LUCKY. On September 19, 2022 at Angel Stadium, Santana’s blast landed in the bullpen and bounced waaaaay over my head into the mostly-empty seats in left-center field. Then two other fans somehow missed it trickling down through the seats.
Tyler Austin walk-off home run
This was Austin's third career home run and his first walk-off, giving the Yankees a 5-4 win over the Rays on September 8, 2016. Security initially told me that he wanted the ball. Then they told me that he didn't. Oh well.
Bryce Harper home run
March 31, 2019. Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Bryce Harper’s second home run as a member of the Phillies (186th of his career). Click here to watch MLB’s footage, and click here to see my video on YouTube. Crazy stuff.
Inaugural game at SunTrust Park
Here's the ball that ended the 7th inning of the inaugural game at the Braves' new stadium. Brandon Phillips lined out to Padres left fielder Travis Jankowski, who tossed it to me on his way back to the dugout. Check out my YouTube video from this game.
Game-used ball from a no-hitter
MLB's first regular-season game in Mexico in 19 years turned out to be no-hitter. This was the ball that ended the first inning — a Christian Villanueva strikeout against Walker Buehler, tossed to me above the 3rd base dugout by Yasmani Grandal.
Mariano Rivera's 313th career save
Yankee Stadium. July 8, 2004. Top of the 9th. Two outs. Mariano Rivera induced Rey Sánchez to ground out to 2nd baseman Miguel Cairo for his 30th save of the season and 313th of his career. Cairo threw the ball to 1st baseman Tony Clark. Clark handed it to Rivera. Rivera returned to the dugout and tossed it to me.
Derek Jeter's 3,262nd career hit
On 8/27/12 at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a game-tying home run against the Blue Jays. I was soooo happy when I caught it that there truly aren't words.
My 1st postseason home run ball
This was hit by Red Sox 3rd baseman Rafael Devers in Game 4 of the 2021 ALDS at Fenway Park. (Bummer that MLB didn’t use commemorative postseason balls until the World Series.) Check out this video of me catching it.
Four studs
Sometimes I prefer to get baseballs thrown to me because of the personal connection that I share with the players. To me, THAT is valuable. These four balls (clockwise from the top left) were thrown by Tom Glavine, Trevor Hoffman, Albert Pujols, and Ichiro Suzuki.
Heath Bell = my hero
Bell might've been a Quadruple-A reliever for the Mets, but he really was my hero. This is the ball that we used to play catch on 9/29/05 at Shea Stadium. And it got better after that. Click here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here, and you'll see what I mean.
1,000th ball
Personal milestones are valuable too. This is the 1,000th ball that I ever snagged. Braves pitcher Pedro Borbón Jr. threw it to me on June 11, 1996 at Shea Stadium. It helped that I was wearing a Braves cap and asked him for the ball in Spanish.
2,000th ball
Phillies pitcher Joe Roa tossed it to me on May 24, 2003 at Olympic Stadium. (Click here for the video.) It helped that I was wearing a Phillies cap and asked him for the ball in English.
3,000th ball
I used my glove trick to pluck this ball off the warning track during batting practice on 5/7/07 at Yankee Stadium.
4,000th ball
Mets pitcher Liván Hernández threw it to me during batting practice on 5/18/09 at Dodger Stadium — totally anticlimactic, but hey, for what it's worth, my 4,001st ball was a BP homer hit by Gary Sheffield that I caught on the fly.
5,000th ball
This was an Alex Ríos BP homer that I caught on the fly on 5/28/11 at Rogers Centre. A friend filmed me catching it. Here's the video on YouTube.
6,000th ball
I was at Fenway Park, and it rained, and there was no batting practice — quite a shame considering I'd hired a videographer and was with a reporter from The Boston Globe. Anyway, Nationals pitcher Brad Lidge tossed this ball to me before the game. Here's my blog entry about it.
7,000th ball
I filmed myself catching this Anthony Rendon BP homer on 8/27/13 at Nationals Park. For some fabulous reason, the Nationals were using various old commemorative balls that day; Rawlings probably had a surplus and sold them cheap.
8,000th ball
Finally, a gamer for one of my milestones! This was a Gerardo Parra foul ball in the top of the 1st inning on 5/15/15 at Citi Field.
10,000th ball
This was the ball that ended the 2nd inning on 8/29/17 at Camden Yards. Welington Castillo struck out looking on a 2-2 pitch from Erasmo Ramírez; the ball was then thrown to Mariners 2nd baseman Robinson Canó, who threw it to me as he jogged off the field. Ta-daaa!! Video here.
11,000th ball
Nothing fancy about this one — Pirates pitcher Francisco Liriano threw it to me during batting practice on 8/13/19 at Angel Stadium.
12,000th ball
Many thanks to Rockies pitcher José Ureña for this one. He tossed it to me during the game on 8/31/22 at Truist Park.
Cal Ripken Jr.
During his career, Ripken was 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 BP in the Bronx.
100th game ball
4/23/07 at Camden Yards. Top of the 7th inning. Runner on 1st. No outs. 1-1 pitch from Brian Burres to Nick Swisher. High foul pop-up behind the plate.
200th game ball
Not only was this a home run, and not only was my girlfriend with me, and not only was it my birthday, but it was hit on the very first pitch of the game, so I got to sit there all night and feel great about myself. Thank you, Anthony Rendon! Here’s the clip from TV.
300th game ball
This was a Chad Pinder foul ball on 5/15/22 at the Oakland Coliseum, and there is EPIC footage in this YouTube video of me leading up to it and then snagging it.
1,000th ball of 2011
A thousand baseballs in one season?! Oh yeah. This was the milestone ball — a BP homer that I caught on the fly on 9/14/11 at Great American Ball Park. Sadly, I don't know who hit it. All I can tell you is that it was a right-handed white guy on the Cubs.
Single-game record
9/14/11 at Great American Ball Park was special for two reasons. Not only did I catch my 1,000th ball of the season (pictured above), but I set a single-game record by snagging 36 balls. (Oh, and it was also my birthday.) This was my final ball of the day — a post-game toss-up from home plate umpire Gary Darling.
1,157
My record for most balls in a season is 1,157, and this was the final one. It was a batting practice homer by Albert Pujols at Game 4 of the 2011 World Series; the ball landed in the gap behind the left field wall, and I reeled it in with my glove trick.
50 stadiums
My first ball of the day on 5/21/12 at Marlins Park made it 50 major league stadiums with at least one snag.
1,000 consecutive games
I snagged a baseball at *every* major league game I attended from September 10, 1993 through June 17, 2019. Twenty-one years into that streak, on 6/24/14 at Citi Field, my first ball of the day made it 1,000 consecutive games with at least one ball.