Odds of Catching a Foul Ball

Nordhagen — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:21:49 -0000

During Wednesday's game at the ToiletDome, they showed a guy down the LF line sitting alone in a sea of hundreds of empty seats. A foul ball bounced a few times before landing right in his lap. He didn’t even put down his soda or stand up. It caught him more than he caught it.

I’ve been to umpteen games in 18 different MLB ballparks, but never caught a ball. Never really been that close, although I got one in a Class A Midwest league game. I almost got a HR ball at Camden on the fandeck in RF, but it bounced the wrong way off a garbage can. My brother caught one at his first MLB game. Now he brings his glove every game (that’s just wrong to have a glove on).

This is an old link, but Fangraphs once attempted to calculate the odds of catching one:

I already assume everybody here besides me has caught one. BP doesn’t count, I say. Anyone got a good story?

SB Nation User Blog: Nordhagen

Odds of Catching a Foul Ball