Rant #1,962: Catch Me If You Can

Yes, that is an apt title for today's Rant, which once again celebrates the current "Subway Series" between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

The Yankees have won the three games, tonight is the final game of the series, and I still don't have a foul ball in my possession.

Going back more than 50 years, I have been at probably at least 100 to 150 baseball games in person, not a lot but enough to have witnessed some great games and a lot of history, too.

But I have never caught a foul ball, never caught a home run ball, never caught a ball thrown into the stands by a player or handed off to me by a player or a ball boy.

Sure, a lot of it has to do with where I sit, usually in "God's Country," closer to the Almighty than to the field.

But many, many times I sat in earshot of foul balls, and while I have been very, very close, I never snared one of these souvenirs.

Just this past Saturday, when my family and I went to the game, we had wonderful seats via my friend, who gave them to me for my 60th birthday.

They were seats that were close to the field, and certainly getting a foul ball was in the realm of possibility.

Well, the first batter for the Yankees, outfielder Brett Gardner, sliced a ball our way, but it veered to our right, hit high off a barrier, and fell into someone else's lap, maybe three or four rows behind us.

Another ball came near us, too, hit by someone on the Red Sox, but it veered way over our heads.

That was it. Nothing else even nearly came our way.

In the past, I have had a couple of near misses.

One was grabbed by someone I was with, a clean catch that I could not even argue about.

Another, a kid next to me with a glove got it on the ball, my fingers touching the ball but never grabbing it.

A few times, the balls hit have been just too high for me to grab.

About 45 years ago or so, I went to a Yankees game with friends, and we bought tickets all the way up in the stands.

As we did back then, and by the way, this was not frowned upon at the time, we moved down to better seats as the game progressed.

We actually got to right behind the Yankees broadcast booth, which was situated right in front of the stands at the time, but certainly accessible and viewable by people in the stands.

We were so close to the booth that Yankees announcer Frank Messer actually asked me what time it was.

I told him, and about a minute after I did, he was standing in the booth, and a player hit a ball right into his vicinity.

He caught the ball with one hand, and flipped it to me, pretty much thanking me for answering his question.

Some creep ran in front of me, grabbed what was to be my prize, and ran off.

And that has been that for me.

I have been to several stadiums in my life, and it's the same thing all the time. I cannot get a foul ball, or if I am sitting in the outfield, I cannot get a home run ball.

People have actually written books about the "science" of grabbing a ball hit into the stands, and I guess I haven't been very good with science.

Or, perhaps, I simply have no luck, which is most probably the case.

I will continue to go to baseball games, and I will continue to believe that this is going to be the game that I finally get my ball, one way or the other.

But time is running out, and I really have to do this within the next few years.

Someone, hit a ball my way!

I have suffered enough.