You may have seen that post we had earlier today about the guy at Yankee Stadium that caught a home run by Jason Giambi two nights ago, then caught another one from Johnny Damon last night.
Well, it wasn't by accident. As Deadspin found out - although I think many of us thought this would be the case - the man who caught the balls is Zack Hample.
If you don't know who Zack Hample is, he's pretty much made a career of going around MLB ballparks and catching baseballs. Sounds crazy, right? Well, yes it is. And Hample is more than a little crazy. But I will say this, the man knows exactly what the hell he's doing. He even published a book on how to catch baseballs (it's unfortunately now out of print).According to Hample, he's caught 3,758 baseballs during his illustrious career. I've never caught one, or even been within 10 feet of one.
So you know, Hample counts every ball he gets, via autograph, foul balls, home runs, tossed into the stands by players, etc. Even then, that number is ABSURD. Oh, and he has a blog where you can read how he caught each one.
Above is a video of how he does it. And while the correspondent seems to think Hample is either baseball's version of Rainman or a total liar, I say screw you correspondent. Hample is an American hero. Well, maybe I wouldn't go that far, but if his skills finally get me my first MLB game ball at some point, I'll be eternally grateful to him.
Snag on brother.
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