Manny’s HR #444
On May 23, 2006, I was sitting in the 5th row of section 35 in straight away center field. I had just come back from a road trip where I saw 6 Sox games in a row (in 7 days between Baltimore and Philly) and the Yankees were in town. I was all but Red Soxed out, until of course, I get the call. “I have an extra Yankees ticket, do you want to… YES! I’ll be there.
At the game, ARod hit a blast of Tim Wakefield over the monster, and the game wasn’t looking good until Manny stepped up to the plate in the 7th, down 7-1. On an 0-2 pitch, he blasted one, going, going, way back, gone! Off the wall behind me, off some guys hand and then right in front of me - GOT IT! I snagged the ball just before the 5 other people around me could, held it up and yelled “I GOT IT!!!”
I couldn’t believe it! I just caught a home run ball from Manny Ramirez, at a Yankee game! Just about 10 minutes before this happened, we were talking about catching fouls and homers, and I mentioned I had my once in a lifetime catch the year before, when i caught a BJ Surhoff homer off David Wells in right field. But low and behold, sometime lighting does strike twice.
Now, my goal is to get him to sign it with the date he hit it or something - after all, only one person has ever caught Manny’s 444th home run!
Stumble it!