Might be time for MLB to just ban him from all parks due to being a jerk. I think MLB can survive with one less jerk coming to games.

This guy has VHS copies of K-PAX and Gattaca???

Wow, I've never heard of this guy.

However if I were going to go through life again and wanted to mimic a lifestyle and attitude to impress the ladies; I'm convinced this would not be it.

Sorry, in a world where NY has two teams and Boston one Zack Hemple is no higher than 50,000th on the list of baseball's most obnoxious fans. And please explain how somebody attempting to catch a ball hit into the stands "disrupts" a whole stadium section. Has the author of this piece never attended an MLB game? Maybe he has, but hasn't had the luck or skill to snag a ball and is jealous of those who have.

NY and Boston get called out all the time, but as far as I know, only Philly has fans who intentionally puke on tween girls.

Has the author of this piece never attended an MLB game?

Forget it, Jake. It's New York Posttown.

A guy at the Royals game last weekend literally stole a home run ball out of a kid's glove. That's got to be good for honorable mention, at least.

Might be time for MLB to just ban him from all parks due to being a jerk. I think MLB can survive with one less jerk coming to games.

Once you open that can of worms, you're volunteering to be the jerk-police. That can't end well.

Despised MLB fan Zack Hample whines after having to follow rules

I erroneously assumed this was the bloke in the Marlins jersey who always seems to have front-row or second-row seats behind home plate during consequential ballgames.

so I never heard of this guy - and now he haunts my dreams.

was reading the latest issue of AARP The Magazine tonight (cable TV guy can't come til Wednesday; these are the times that try men's souls), and they have a friendly fan named "Zack Hample" explain how to get a ball at an MLB game !

- arrive early; sometimes you'll find balls under OF seats from the start of batting practice (seems up there with catching a dead fish, but whatever).

- go to the first game of a series. Hample says the visiting team batters seem to take more swings so they can gauge the difficulty of hitting the ball out of various portions of the park. ironically, he adds that "plus, they haven't been hounded for days by collectors, so they're more likely to toss you a ball."

- wear 2 baseball caps to each game - home and road teams. visiting players notice, he says, gear of their own team and may want to reward your (in his case, fake) loyalty.

I erroneously assumed this was the bloke in the Marlins jersey who always seems to have front-row or second-row seats behind home plate during consequential ballgames.

Despite being a lawyer, and quite unlike Zack Hample, Marlins Man sounds like a pretty chill dude.

Imagine dropping $270 on a box of 2017 Topps Archives Baseball and one of the two autographs you get in the box is "Fan Favorite" Zack Hample.

Buying baseball cards (newer ones) as an investment is a case of a fool and their money being parted. Pre-1980 you might be able to do well, but I suspect in a few years (if not already) fake cards will take over the industry. The really rare to be found in top condition cards are pre-1980, and most printers today can duplicate those for quality easily. Trick is to make them look old so most would be fooled by them. Then sell via fake ID's on eBay (using a VPN) with too good to be true pricing and once you get caught close that account and open another a week later. I suspect it wouldn't be that hard for someone with no soul to do and get away with for a long period of time. On the crime scale it would be too petty for the police to bother with I suspect even if you hauled in a few grand a day off of it. If I was a cop and someone complained their Mickey Mantle rookie card they bought off eBay from a seller with 0 feedback was fake I'd roll my eyes and do the bare minimum.

It’s not nearly as bad as all that, John. There is a certain level of paranoia in the hobby that a massive number of vintage cards are fake and/or altered, but I’ve never seen any reliable information that the technology exists to make fakes that indistinguishably replicate the vintage print dot patterns and card stock. As far as I can tell, fakes are pretty easy to spot on eBay with halfway decent photos, and absolutely easy to spot with the card in hand, if you’re anything beyond a total novice. Rumors of unspottable fakes seem to be just that, rumors.

Moreover, eBay now has an authenticity guarantee where any card over, I think it’s like $250, goes to CSG or PSA to be authenticated before being shipped to the buyer. It’s drastically cut down on the shady listings (which were pretty obviously shady to begin with). Even before that, eBay would force a refund if a buyer claimed the card was fake after receiving it.

I’ve bought at least 1000 cards of pre-1980 Hall of Famers since I got back into collecting in the last few years, about 99 percent of which are raw. I can think of about 5 where I’ve taken a flier on an eBay listing with blurry photos or otherwise questionable info, and the card turned out to be fake. After the first one (1968 Topps Mantle), I was easily able to spot them all and get a refund.

Yeah, Marlins Man is just a dude that likes watching ballgames. The most he's done with his unsought-for fame is give the occasional jersey away for charity.

#4: Who knew Hample frequented BBTF?

Someone is trying to take the title away from Hample.

Seriously, who does that, for those who didn't watch the video, a 15 year old catches the ball, the guy reaches into his glove and pulls it out and puts it into his own glove. And this is a youTube personality. (man vs impossible)

LMAO, the guy tried to offer him Sam Gaviglio jerseys as compensation.

Someone is trying to take the title away from Hample.

Seriously, who does that, for those who didn't watch the video, a 15 year old catches the ball, the guy reaches into his glove and pulls it out and puts it into his own glove. And this is a youTube personality. (man vs impossible)

I'm shocked the guy wasn't immediately surrounded by an angry crowd and made to fork it over. And why couldn't security do something? It's theft once the kid has the ball in his possession.

It's probably too late for the posters to read this, but I really need to comment on numbers 13 and 14.

John – faking cardboard is much more complex than you think. Though I don't have much inside information on practices surrounding vintage sports cards these days, I do know that there are Magic: The Gathering counterfeit cards out there of high enough quality to fake all but the most astute observers. Just a glance over at the BootlegMTG subreddit will give you an idea of the scope of the problem. We're talking about something much larger than your hypothetical home printer duplicate. We're talking about large-scale Chinese industrial printers devoted to creating counterfeits.

#14: I would strongly suggest caution if you continue to purchase raw pre-1980 cards of well-known players. There are a lot more bootleg and trimmed cards out there than you realize, and relying on eBay's "authenticity guarantee" is a joke. Remember that PSA and the other major grading companies have been known to get things wrong on multiple occasions; in fact, even the most famous baseball card of all time was clearly trimmed. If you don't believe me, spend some time on this Blowout Cards Forum thread and see for yourself.

The collectibles industry is filled with very sketchy people who are trying to make a fortune off of nothing. It's always been this way, and will not likely change in the future. Fakes are harder to detect than you think, and even "authenticated" collectables should be treated with suspicion – don't forget the Logan Paul Pokemon fiasco. The recent pump-and-dump scheme in the video game collecting industry is almost a step-by-step copy of the explosion of the baseball card hobby that started in the late 1970s – you're likely getting far less "value" than you are paying for, even if the cards are authentic.

And remember that Upper Deck's raison d'être was to affix holograms to cards to supposedly make them impervious to bootlegging attempts. Perhaps your "pretty easy to spot" fakes aren't the only cards that should be treated with suspicion.

I would strongly advise anybody against investing in baseball cards, or in any other collectible for that matter. Even buying PSA graded cards is no guarantee of authenticity, and you are likely to get burned more than once.

Fakes are harder to detect than you think

they're really not. between the textures, the cardstock, the fonts and the inking, if you want to know, you can know.

don't forget the Logan Paul Pokemon fiasco.

fwiw, people who would "know" strongly suspected that the case paul bought was a fraud before he opened it. in fact, that's one of the reasons why he opened the case, and why it was a "thing" that he opened the case. if he had just kept the damn thing closed, it would still be worth 3.5+MM, which goes to show that there can be a very real incentive to not know whether or not something is legitimate.

I do know that there are Magic: The Gathering counterfeit cards out there of high enough quality to fake all but the most astute observers. Just a glance over at the BootlegMTG subreddit will give you an idea of the scope of the problem. We're talking about something much larger than your hypothetical home printer duplicate. We're talking about large-scale Chinese industrial printers devoted to creating counterfeits.

"proxies". they're large scale chinese industrial printers devoted to creating "proxies".

noone's printing power 9 counterfeits and trying to pass them off as authentic.

I would strongly advise anybody against investing in baseball cards, or in any other collectible for that matter. Even buying PSA graded cards is no guarantee of authenticity, and you are likely to get burned more than once.

collectibles are a reasonable inclusion to a well-rounded portfolio. as long as you don't throw your entire life's savings into it, you'll probably be fine.

Here's another bad guy.