Fans at center of Dodgers home run throwback speak out
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Kirk Head says he bought seats in the Crawford boxes with the intent of catching a Dodger home run and throwing the ball back.
He didn't plan on having to pry it from his sister-in-law's grip in order to make that happen.
Yasiel Puig's two-run homer sailed into the Crawford boxes over left field.
"It just felt like...really, that ball was in slow motion, coming at you, falling out of the sky slowly at you," said Sarah Head, who caught the home run ball in the top of the 9th inning.
The ball bounced off another fan's glove and Sarah found herself holding it.
"A few seconds, you're like, 'Oh my gosh, I caught the ball.' Then you're like, 'Oh! Oh! There goes the ball!" Sarah said, with a laugh.
Sarah's brother-in-law ripped it from her grasp, and lobbed it back on the field.
"I intended to do it," Kirk said. "I've been talking about it for days."
Kirk, his brother and their wives had a great time at the game even before the ball incident.
He says he bought the seats in the Crawford box just hoping they might catch an opposing team's home run. He dislikes Puig and says throwing his home run back is his duty as a loyal Astros fan.
Sarah Head insists she is not upset. Not angry. In fact, she admits she wish she could've thrown the ball back herself.
Kirk told her he owes her.
"We've laughed about it," Kirk said.
Kirk says someone suggested the ball might have been worth a significant amount of money.
But the Astros' authentication manager says that's maybe wishful thinking.
Once a ball is touched by a fan, Mike Acosta says, its value is greatly diminished, even if the time it's in the stands is all caught on video.
"There is a chain of custody that needs to happen on that ball," Acosta says. "We can't lose sight of it."
The "real deal" is logged and given a special hologram sticker.
Even if the ball he wrestled from his sister-in-law was worth something, Kirk says the fact is it wasn't an Astros home run, so it has to go.
"I'd still throw it back," Kirk said.
A verified World Series-used baseball can be worth upwards of $20,000, according to the expert we talked to here. More if it was a ball from a rare event in a game.
Kirk and Sarah Head are joking still though about what he has to buy her for Christmas to make this up to her. We'll see.
