Young girl innocently throws back Derek Jeter foul ball
It appears everything Derek Jeter does over the final 10 days of his career will be newsworthy. Yes, even his innocent foul balls that seemingly only serve the purpose of keeping one of his final plate appearances alive.
As we saw in the seventh inning on Friday night, his foul balls can actually be dramatic and highly entertaining events. Although we're sure the parents of the young girl involved would also add the word stressful to the description.
On a 2-2 pitch from Blue Jays reliever Todd Redmond, Jeter hit a soft chopper foul up the third base line to prolong his at-bat. Toronto third baseman Danny Valencia picked the ball up and soft-tossed it into the stands to a lucky fan. As the camera later panned to the crowd, we saw the recipient, a father of two young girls, holding up the ball and one of his daughters while his wife snapped a happy photo.
Happiness soon turned to terror though. After the photo was taken, he handed the ball off to his other daughter, and with all of her might she leaned back and fired it back on to the field.
No hesitation. No regret. She wanted to get rid of that baseball as soon as she touched it, and there was nothing anybody could do but gasp as the valuable keepsake flew through the air.
Ironically, just before that pitch the Toronto announcers were discussing the value of Jeter's final home run ball at Yankee Stadium. A foul ball obviously pales in comparison, but just about any Jeter souvenir on his final homestand will have value. If nothing else, it will have personal value to those lucky enough to secure it, so the loss of that souvenir would be devastating.
Fortunately for this family, there would be a happy ending. Though the unknowing ball boy attempted to give it away to another young fan, that fan seemed to insist he return it to the young girl. So it was done, and this time the ball was put in a safe place so that it would survive the trip home.
That foul ball will no doubt be an irreplaceable memento. And if there's a bright side to all of the drama, at least now it has an entertaining story attached to it that matches the value itself.
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is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
