2018 hand painted baseball #4

2018 baseball #4
Hand painted official MLB ball
 
In the spring of 1998 I rode cross country on a greyhound bus, stopping for ballgames at major league parks in philly, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, San Francisco and oakland...I can’t imagine trying to get into games nowadays wearing my huge camping backpack, but that’s what I did....Detroit hassled me about my jar of peanut butter but otherwise no problems at all....I wasn’t staying at hotels, just attending games and finding my way back to bus stations!....when I got to coors field, it was a beautiful day, but there was snow in the forecast! I posted up in left field for batting practice (of course I had my glove with me!).....there are a lot of dingers hit in Colorado, and during bp it felt like every single pitch reached the stands.....only took about 15 minutes until I snared a scorching line drive off the bat of Cincinnati’s Reggie Sanders....satisfied with my souvinier, I found my way upstairs behind home plate and found a seat in the purple row, which marked a mile above sea level.....midway through the game, after a brief snow delay! I noticed a little old man sitting with his young grandson a few rows ahead of me....the kid, maybe 6 or 7, had his glove on, as well as a parka and a couple blankets, and was eagerly anticipating each pitch in hopes of the next ball coming his way....we were sitting a few rows from the top of the stadium, literally no chance of a ball reaching us.....so I reached into my bag and pulled out the bp ball I had caught earlier that afternoon, climbed down a few rows and asked the man if I could give the ball to his grandson....I spoke virtually no Spanish at the time and it became clear that this gentleman didn’t speak much English but the look on his face thanked me more than words....the next inning the two of them came up to my row and in broken English he explained to me that he had brought his grandson to his very first game, and all the kid wanted was to get a ball....he then asked me to sign the ball for his grandson! And when I did both of them gave me a huge hug and many “gracias! Gracias!” It was getting late and was silly cold, so my new friends waved goodbye and headed home...I like to think that somewhere that little fan still has that Kerrigan-signed ball 😁
 
In celebration of the 2018 baseball season , here is the fourth of nine hand painted baseballs I released on opening day...each unique ball comes in a clear UV display cube