The best part about this is that Greg Van Niel is not a ballhawk, that execrable subspecies who attend games solely for the purpose of collecting baseballs. Van Niel's just a regular fan, who happened to be sitting in the exact right spot to get four foul balls yesterday, all by the fifth inning.
Van Niel is a season ticket holder, yet yesterday was the first foul ball he had ever caught at an Indians game. (And the second foul ball, and the third and fourth.) He's a check mark in the "pro" column if you're debating bringing a glove to a game.
“Three of them were catches and one was a ball I picked up off the ground,” said Van Niel. “The third one I think was the hardest one – I think I ended up sprawled across a few rows, and I got some cheese on myself. But the other ones were just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.”
If you're wondering why in the photo above, provided by the Indians, Van Niel only has three balls—well, three's enough for anyone. As soon as he retrieved a fourth, he gave it up to those less fortunate:
Van Niel had some maybe not-so-helpful advice for fans seeking foul balls of their own:
"Row FF, Section 160, Seat 3 if you’re looking for tickets—it’s the magic seat.”