Kid Has a Real Ball at Dodger Game

At the Sunday evening Dodger game against Atlanta, my 12-year-old son and I sat in the first row of the loge near first base. He waited anxiously and hoped against all odds that a foul ball would come his way.

At the end of the eighth inning, as the Braves were coming back into their dugout, first baseman Julio Franco looked up into the crowd and saw my son Justin waving frantically for the ball. He smiled and tossed the ball directly to my son. Immediately, a nearby teenager jumped at the ball and knocked it out of my son’s glove. It fell below to a man in the field-level seats. My son, crushed, crumpled in his seat and began to cry. Fans around us encouraged him with “There will be others” and “It was the other kid’s fault.” That did little to console him.

I then watched as a fan below made his way to the man with the ball and talked to him for several minutes, gesturing up at my son. The gentleman, as he was certainly so, looked up and tossed it to Justin. That not only made his day, but restored my faith in humanity.

As the fans cheered the gentleman for his kindness, I waved and mouthed the words “Thank you” to both men below. My endless thanks to Julio Franco and the two gentlemen for making a 12-year-old boy happy.

Gordon Youngs

Arcadia