Confessions of a MLB ball hawker

Crazy.

Hample is a pro. He carries a cap for the home team and the visitors (more on that shortly). He has a streak to maintain (at least one ball per game attended since 1993), a reputation to uphold (he's written a book about ball-snagging, which essentially makes him the Dan Brown of books about ball-snagging) and an ongoing competition to win (he's currently in first place in an online ball-snagging league, and yes, there actually is an online ball-snagging league).

I've been to a number of minor league baseball games and two major league baseball games in my life, and I've never really been close to snagging a ball. The closest I've come is when I was at batting practice before a San Diego Padres game in 1998.

It was a game where Mark McGwire hit a home run (I remember two home runs, but apparently he never hit two home runs in a game while in San Diego in his 70 home run season, so my memory must be mistaken) -- but it was in batting practice where McGwire hit a blast to left field that was directly at me -- but five rows too far beyond me.

That wasn't his gut

From ESPN's recap of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Divisional Series:

A sinking line drive sailed through the chilly evening air toward Matt Holliday. All he needed to do was make the catch and St. Louis would have a series-tying victory.

Instead, the ball smacked him in the gut and dropped to the grass -- and the Cardinals never recovered.

I was watching the game, and I can assure you that the ball didn't hit him in the gut, but a little bit more... sensitive area.

There's video at that link above.

Newly found Babe Ruth footage excites baseball afficianados

A cool story from the New York Times:

Babe Ruth has struck out looking. Displeased, he leans on his bat, right hand on his hip, and looks back at the umpire. He utters something that can only be imagined. Lou Gehrig, on deck, leans on his bat, too, as if he has seen this act before. Ruth finally shuffles away, head turned to the umpire, dragging his bat through the dirt.

The scene, along with eight seconds of footage never publicly seen of Ruth playing the outfield, was part of an 8-millimeter film found by a New Hampshire man in his grandfather’s home movie collection. It provides a rare look at Ruth, a showman even in defeat.

Cool stuff. Head over to that link to see the video.

Marring an otherwise good article on Letterman

The New Yorker has an otherwise good blog post on David Letterman, but this mistake shows that the person who wrote the article obviously hasn't watched The Late Show with David Letterman in a while, let alone watch it on a regular basis:

But from the beginning things were a little off. Letterman made a show of running across the back of the stage before walking out to greet the audience, and then he went off to the side to talk to someone for a second or two. It’s hard to say what that was all about—nerves, blowing off steam, a pretend escape from the theatre?

The Late Show does this gag every day.