If You Catch A Foul Ball At A Baseball Game, Do You HAVE To Give It To A Kid? The Viral Debate Wages On...
Twitter has been up in arms the past couple days about this Dodger fan who refused to give a foul ball to some random kid sitting a couple rows behind him. Before I get into my take on the matter, I'll give a hearty fuck you to anybody who tries to pressure someone into giving a ball away at a game. Especially if you're trying to force them to give it to a kid who's not even yours.
That being said, when I sit down at a baseball game, one of the first things I do is look around the section to see who's in my vicinity. Because If I was lucky enough to catch a foul ball that day, I'd wanna know if there's a kid nearby who would appreciate it. Or if there's a smoking hot woman I could casually toss it over to. But we all know I'm not slick enough for that second option.
I'm saying this, though, as someone who's gotten my fair share of baseballs at games before. Foul balls that I was able to chase down, players lobbing a ball up to me in the stands after an inning. I'll never forget showing up early for batting practice one time and catching a home run ball from Hunter Pence. I made sure I had a row in left field all to myself, and I probably ran a good 10-15 seats over to track it down. It was a scorcher, but it was no match for 11-year-old Connor Griffin. I snagged that fucker like it was nobody's business.
But I recognize that not everybody has been blessed with memories like that. And retrieving a foul ball still might be a sacred thing for them, even as they enter adulthood. I'm never gonna look down on somebody who chooses to keep one, ESPECIALLY if they legitimately caught it. It's one thing to pick the ball up as it's rolling around on the concrete beneath you. It's another thing to show some skill and make a play on it while it's still in the air. I'd wanna keep that ball for SURE.
However, if you're the asshole that's going out of the way to prevent kids from getting baseballs just so you can take one home, then I absolutely cannot come to your defense. That's like the Impractical Jokers bit when Joe had to steal baseballs from children at the Mets game. Damnit, I miss that show.
But with this clip from the other day, it seems like the Dodger fan got the ball in a totally clean manner. The little kid who wanted it was way further back, so there should be no expectation for that guy to give the ball away. You actually gotta give him props for standing his ground. A lot of people would've given into the peer pressure of that moment. I know I would have.
Sidenote: Does it matter at all that the guy who caught it was a Dodger fan and the little kid was a Braves fan? Do team allegiances weigh into the decision-making process here, even if one of the parties involved is just a kid? Personally, I have no problem with the kid hating the Dodgers and their fans for the rest of his life because of this incident. That's a valuable lesson to learn at an early age. Fuck the Dodgers.
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What's your take on the matter? What's the proper etiquette here? Personally, I think this Dodger fan was well within his rights to act the way he did. But maybe I'm wrong…