6th inning, Foul ball

All kinds of people go to baseball games. Its unavoidable that some people will place too high a value on a souvenir. Lots of digital ink gets spilled over what people do wrong in this world. I would like to draw attention to how easy it can be to overlook when something is done just right.

On April 28th, in the 6th inning at the Rogers Centre, the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners were duelling it out. A foul ball was pulled into the lower level seats by Edwin Encarnacion. It was picked up by a young fan, maybe nine or ten years old. Not unusual to see a foul ball caught by a glove toting young fan.

Then the boy did something that caught the attention of one of the camera operators. He ran down the aisle to an even younger fan, and gave him the ball. Perhaps he read one of the many articles on foul ball etiquette published after the couple in the link above seemed to miss the boat. Whatever his reasons, his actions speak for themselves, from my twitter feed:

Aww... A youngster catches his second ball of the game and gives that second ball to another young fan instead of keeping both for himself.
— Trin (@trin86) April 28, 2012

Sure, it was his second foul ball, but Mike Wilner (@wilnerness590) caught a ball in the same game, and revealed that it was his first catch in over 2000 games that he has attended.  Never sure when you are going to get another one, so giving away the ball does mean something.

Seems that someone else at the stadium noticed the gesture as well. Again, from twitter:

Aww and now the two kids are getting their foul balls signed by Ace, the mascot. Now that's just a great story.
— Trin (@trin86) April 28, 2012

I think it's a great story, too. One last add-on, to this little tale: When the boy and his older companion left early, (bedtime, I guess) the section he was sitting in gave him a round of applause. And he tipped his cap to the crowd.

Now, really, it doesn't get much better than that. He has a story that he can tell the rest of his life. I have a story to post on my blog. The littlest kid in this tale has a baseball. Everybody in his section gets to cheer for the good guy. I'm not the type to suggest that our foul ball donater will grow up to be a better man because of this incident. He seems like he might have a few things figured out about right and wrong already, but, you know, small sample size, and all that. What I would suggest is that, when you are at a game, and have a chance to share a moment with the fans around you, remember, all kinds of people go to baseball games. Once in a while, one of them might make a little magic happen in the stands.