Valuable balls
Alex Rodriguez's 3,000th career hit
This is probably the most valuable baseball I’ve ever snagged. The "R" stands for "Rodriguez," and the "1" indicates that it was the first specially marked ball of the game that was put into play for his at-bats. Those markings were already there when I grabbed it. The sticker above was placed there a little while later by an MLB authenticator.
Mike Trout's 1st career home run
Or maybe THIS one is the most valuable? We’ll never know. On 7/24/11 at Camden Yards, I caught Mike Trout's first major league homer and gave him the ball after the game. That's why I don't have a better photograph of it here. I do, however, have a good video clip of this bless’d moment.
Last Mets home run at Shea Stadium
This is still my favorite ball. It was Carlos Beltrán's 263rd career home run, but more importantly, it ended up being the last homer that the Mets ever hit at Shea Stadium. Click here to read my long blog entry about the experience and click here to watch me catching it and freaking out.