Today In MLB Blogs

OK, here's the thing. Baseballs are plentiful and relatively cheap. So why do people become village idiots when one is batted in their direction? We've seen fathers elbow their young daughters out of the way in order to catch a foul ball at a major league game. We've seen men knocking over the elderly, kids pushing over wheelchairs ... all to grab a ball that Tony Graffanino has fouled weakly behind home plate. If Steve Bartman has taught us anything, it's that nothing good can come of this pursuit. It must stop. We can begin by locking up Zack Hample, the kid who claims to have gathered 2,500 baseballs at major league games. He is nearing a milestone — 400 consecutive games in which he has caught at least one ball in the stands. (Most of those have been grabbed at batting practice. Should that count?) He chronicles his crime spree here, at The Baseball Collector at MLBBlogs.com. We'll say one thing for Zack — he posts practically every day, unlike dead weight such as Tommy Lasorda and Tom Seaver. But one of these days, he's going to look back on his life and see nothing but a backyard full of baseballs. Sad, really.

The Baseball Collector [MLB Blogs]