Competition for souvenir baseballs at major league games can be fierce. Not everyone wins. Unless somebody shares. Then, we all win. That's what happened Sunday at Chase Field in Phoenix after Gerardo Parra of the Arizona Diamondbacks tossed a loose ball to fans in right field.
Boy A in the front row of the grandstand caught the ball, which Parra appeared to be tossing to a smaller fan on the right who had run down the aisle from a few rows back. Boy A didn't realize this; he didn't push anybody out of the way or be a jerk, he just reached for the ball and, by virtue of being older and having longer arms and being in the front row, made the catch with this glove.
Boy B was consoled almost immediately by (presumably) his father, but he was understandably upset at not getting the ball. Souvenir balls are the most valuable thing a fan could ever get at a game.
Well, a third boy in the next section over apparently saw all of this go down, so he went to a concession stand and — with his own money from his allowance for mowing the lawn (theoretically) — he bought a souvenir baseball for the upset boy and presented it to him. A Giants fan, to boot, as the broadcasters point out.
That's the true spirit of being a baseball fan. Buying another guy a beer, especially if one has been spilt, for example. Or, if you're not old enough to do that, coming through with a $10 or $15 baseball. Even if it's a weird silver color with a D-backs logo and it never would be confused with an actual game ball and that's not the point!
The best part of the incident was the concerned dad shaking the Samaritan's hand. His own boy probably would have been OK not coming away with a ball. Time heals all wounds. Mostly. But maybe next time, when something nice can be done for another kid, it will be his kid acting kindly. That's called paying it forward. Good job by the broadcast team to be paying attention for something like this. It probably was much more interesting than the Giants beating the D-backs 8-2.
As for the benefactor child, Boy C? Good on him. Karma and all of that. The Giants broadcasters got it started by sending him a ball from the booth. Now everyone has one.
The more you know. And that's half the battle.
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