I would much rather watch someone throw a home run back than see some nitwit in the home teams t-shirt jumping up and down and being all excited when a visiting player has just hit a home run. That drives me nuts. What are you excited about? The other team is kicking your ass.

This should never be done anywhere but Wrigley (unless you are throwing it back to the field from the street outside the park and the opponent is the Yankees and it's the ALCS).

Once a fan catches a ball, it's his ball, and if he wants to throw it back on the field or sell it to the highest bidder or shove it up his ass in the restroom, that's none of Jim Capel's God-damn business.

Once a fan catches a ball, it's his ball, and if he wants to throw it back on the field or sell it to the highest bidder or shove it up his ass in the restroom, that's none of Jim Capel's God-damn business.

They should be ejected from the ballpark, though. Don't throw stuff on the field.

As Peter Abraham often says, it's not like they destroy the ball. They just give it to someone sitting next to the dugout, someone who paid a lot more for those seats than you did, and might care less about the home team than you do. Should that fan throw it back? It's the same ball.

Just enforce the policy of ejecting patrons who throw things onto the field of play. That silly trend will die in a hurry.

Cubs fans used to bring in fake balls to throw back, and would thus keep the real one. People like this lady need the concept explained to them it seems.

Just enforce the policy of ejecting patrons who throw things onto the field of play. That silly trend will die in a hurry.

I think some ballparks do that already. I think most fans assume it doesn't apply to a home run hit by the other team, or they just let the peer pressure get to them.

If I caught a home run ball right now, I'd totally throw it at Jim Caple's head. Just because.

Jose...I never say 'this', but THISX1000.

That and grinning idiots who wave at the camera when their team is getting pasted.

...but I would also never throw a HR ball back either.

Don't worry, Theo will put a stop to all this. He'll also make all the Cubbies drink O'Doul's in the clubhouse...

Once a fan catches a ball, it's his ball, and if he wants to throw it back on the field or sell it to the highest bidder or shove it up his ass in the restroom, that's none of Jim Capel's God-damn business.

Totally agree. First people were whining because the guy who caught Jeter's 3000th hit didn't hire Scott Boras to represent him, and now this guy's fretting about an admittedly stupid but totally harmless tradition, the obvious purpose of which is to ensure that foreigners and other dubious characters will never, ever understand the game.

He'll also make all the Cubbies drink O'Doul's in the clubhouse...

There's no need to be cruel. Just give 'em water or juice or something.

There's no need to be cruel. Just give 'em water or juice or something.

Tough, tough love, baby!!!

Cubs fans used to bring in fake balls to throw back, and would thus keep the real one. People like this lady need the concept explained to them it seems.

Yup -

One my earliest bleacher memories, back when the bleachers were still just a sort of hip but moderately unknown beer garden, was attending a game in the mid 80s. A Red -- Nick Esasky, I believe -- plopped an HR a few rows back that a young kid a few seats over ended up with. You could see he was anguished -- it was in the later innings, so the well-lubricated folks behind him were bellowing to throw it back, and though the kid had on a Cubs shirt, you could tell he was stuck between wanting to retain his keepsake and following decorum. An obvious ballhawk a few seats down from me reached into his pocket, pulled out a ratty baseball and somewhat stealthily passed it to our group and then us over to the kid and his dad to throw back instead. I asked him what would happen if HE now got one - and he reached into his other pocket to pull out another.... "One to teach, one to use yourself," he said.

You could never do this now, though -- I think the bleacher gates are now manned by TSA trainees who basically conduct strip searches on your way into the park... I don't think there's any conceivable way you could sneak a baseball into the bleachers from outside anymore.

Dodger Stadium has the same tradition. That said, if I ever caught a homerun ball there is no way I'm throwing it back.

That and grinning idiots who wave at the camera when their team is getting pasted

Sorry, but the biggest tossers at any sporting event anywhere in the world is the d*ckhead on his mobile phone..waving to the camera AND pointing at the phone...what an arsehole.

BTW, I also, would never throw a ball back onto the field if I got one.

Just three players in history have hit three home runs in a World Series game—Babe Ruth (twice), Reggie Jackson and Pujols. And she had the historic ball in her hand! But because the ridiculous trend is for fans to throw back opponent’s home runs, Hartsell immediately whipped the valuable souvenir onto the field.

So I guess she won't go on to invent and star in a hybrid baseball-basketball-wordplay sport.

You could never do this now, though -- I think the bleacher gates are now manned by TSA trainees who basically conduct strip searches on your way into the park... I don't think there's any conceivable way you could sneak a baseball into the bleachers from outside anymore.

I've never had anything like this happen to me. Flasks, food, Gatorade, no issues. You must have a suspicious face.

Also, I don't think you are banned from bringing baseballs into parks so you probably wouldn't have to sneak it. Hell, they sell the things inside the stadium!

I've never had anything like this happen to me. Flasks, food, Gatorade, no issues. You must have a suspicious face.

At the bleacher entrance? They do a full pat down -- or at least whack at you with sticks -- a...ummm... friend had a flask confiscated, and another almost had to give up a pack of cigars.

The grandstand entrances aren't nearly so tough - but they've been pretty hard core at the bleachers.

I guess I've never - well, at least not in the last 10 years or so (last time I brought one was in '98... Cardinals and Mac or no - I was keeping anything salable) - tried to bring a ball into the bleachers, but it seems like they've come down pretty hard on anything tossable... I even had a friend get an uninflated beach ball confiscated last summer (not that I was upset about that).

I don't think there's any conceivable way you could sneak a baseball into the bleachers from outside anymore.

You must have missed the earlier part of the thread.

Once a fan catches a ball, it's his ball, and if he wants to throw it back on the field or sell it to the highest bidder or shove it up his ass in the restroom, that's none of Jim Capel's God-damn business.

Problem solved.