Albert Pujols hit his 498th career home run off Tiger closer Joe Nathan Saturday afternoon. I was there courtesy of my buddy Tommy B, and we knew the number of the home run was in the high 400's. It was an impressive looking thing too, at least from our perspective behind the visitor's dugout on the first base line. But it didn't land so far back in the crowd that a regular beer swilling Tiger fan couldn't throw the ball back on to the field. Which, after some coaxing, he did.
This guy would have kept it.
I love the tradition of throwing an opponent's home run back on to the field. I believe that originated at Wrigley in Chicago, and I'm not gonna research it any further because Wrigley is the coolest ballpark still standing, no one grades me on this blog and because you are not the boss of me. I wish I could say the tradition started at Tiger Stadium, but I didn't see it there until years after I first saw it at Wrigley. Besides, if it started at Tiger Stadium some bleacher bum with a BAC higher than Kaline's career average would have knocked out Chet Lemon*.
But that ball, even though it was not a milestone, was still a rare souvenir.
Only 26 players have hit 498 home runs or more. So there are only 26 possible balls with that exact number attached to them ever.
Strangely enough, two career 498's were hit at Comerica Park, the other being the talented but mercenary Gary Sheffield's blast off the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Andy Sonnanstine.
On Saturday,a ball boy fetched the discarded ball and brought it over to the left field foul line, where he appeared to hand it to a kid. And I hope that kid's parent/legal guardian/scout leader/creepy next door neighbor knew the rarity of that baseball and arranged to have it autographed. I gotta imagine either Pujols would want the baseball himself in exchange for some pretty cool autographed gear, or at the very least he'd slap his signature on it and pose for a picture.
Either way, that was a ball worth holding on to temporarily. I know I wouldn't have succumbed to the grandstand peer pressure, though it is possible that after a few months I might have succumbed to eBay.
*Not very many home run balls landed in the upper deck bleachers in Tiger Stadium, so mostly Chet Lemon just had to deal with beach balls that smelled like shitty weed.
I love the tradition of throwing an opponent's home run back on to the field. I believe that originated at Wrigley in Chicago, and I'm not gonna research it any further because Wrigley is the coolest ballpark still standing, no one grades me on this blog and because you are not the boss of me. I wish I could say the tradition started at Tiger Stadium, but I didn't see it there until years after I first saw it at Wrigley. Besides, if it started at Tiger Stadium some bleacher bum with a BAC higher than Kaline's career average would have knocked out Chet Lemon*.
But that ball, even though it was not a milestone, was still a rare souvenir.
Only 26 players have hit 498 home runs or more. So there are only 26 possible balls with that exact number attached to them ever.
Strangely enough, two career 498's were hit at Comerica Park, the other being the talented but mercenary Gary Sheffield's blast off the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Andy Sonnanstine.
On Saturday,a ball boy fetched the discarded ball and brought it over to the left field foul line, where he appeared to hand it to a kid. And I hope that kid's parent/legal guardian/scout leader/creepy next door neighbor knew the rarity of that baseball and arranged to have it autographed. I gotta imagine either Pujols would want the baseball himself in exchange for some pretty cool autographed gear, or at the very least he'd slap his signature on it and pose for a picture.
Either way, that was a ball worth holding on to temporarily. I know I wouldn't have succumbed to the grandstand peer pressure, though it is possible that after a few months I might have succumbed to eBay.
*Not very many home run balls landed in the upper deck bleachers in Tiger Stadium, so mostly Chet Lemon just had to deal with beach balls that smelled like shitty weed.
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