What is a Ballhawk?
Ballhawk (noun): People who hunt down baseballs. From the Wall Street Journal: "Ballhawks go to games with the intention of grabbing any ball that goes in the stands, especially milestone home runs like a player's first or 500th. Most then refuse to give them back to the player unless he coughs up something valuable in return...."
What do they do?
Ballhawks will attempt to catch milestone balls - footballs, baseballs, or whatever and exchange them for something to sell in the Sports Memorabilia market. If they get catch a rookie's first homerun, they might ask for a signed ball, jersey, or bat from the team's superstar in return...aka something they can sell.
How do they do it?
They'll buy tickets to milestone games, research the likely places where the ball will be hit - based on hitting tendencies, the pitcher, or even the weather. There's websites to help you track: http://www.happyyoungster.com/milestone_tracker
League & Player involvement:
There's even professional hawkers who will hope for a payoff and pay their friends to sit in the stands...sometimes the players contract it out beforehand. For instance, Ken Griffey hired dozens of ballhawks to catch his 600th home run.
MLB now has hired memoribilia authenticators at every game, basically an approval of the sports memoribilia industry.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/129554
Other:
There's even competitions...
This guy allows you to donate to MADD, kind of like a walk-a-thon.
http://www.mlballhawk.com/
Article in today's WSJ:
Fans Play Hardball After Snagging Even Obscure Milestone Home Runs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124700099868207685.html
So what's your thought? Support it? Hate it?
Ballhawk (noun): People who hunt down baseballs. From the Wall Street Journal: "Ballhawks go to games with the intention of grabbing any ball that goes in the stands, especially milestone home runs like a player's first or 500th. Most then refuse to give them back to the player unless he coughs up something valuable in return...."
What do they do?
Ballhawks will attempt to catch milestone balls - footballs, baseballs, or whatever and exchange them for something to sell in the Sports Memorabilia market. If they get catch a rookie's first homerun, they might ask for a signed ball, jersey, or bat from the team's superstar in return...aka something they can sell.
How do they do it?
They'll buy tickets to milestone games, research the likely places where the ball will be hit - based on hitting tendencies, the pitcher, or even the weather. There's websites to help you track: http://www.happyyoungster.com/milestone_tracker
League & Player involvement:
There's even professional hawkers who will hope for a payoff and pay their friends to sit in the stands...sometimes the players contract it out beforehand. For instance, Ken Griffey hired dozens of ballhawks to catch his 600th home run.
MLB now has hired memoribilia authenticators at every game, basically an approval of the sports memoribilia industry.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/129554
Other:
There's even competitions...
This guy allows you to donate to MADD, kind of like a walk-a-thon.
http://www.mlballhawk.com/
Article in today's WSJ:
Fans Play Hardball After Snagging Even Obscure Milestone Home Runs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124700099868207685.html
So what's your thought? Support it? Hate it?