Red Sox ball girl has priceless reaction after fielding Eric Hosmer's fair ball
By Mark Townsend July 19, 2014 5:06 PM Big League Stew
It was the best and the worst of life as a major league ball girl all wrapped up in one play.
On one hand, the ball girl stationed along the right field line at Fenway Park on Friday night got to be part of the action, impressively fielding Kansas City Royals slugger Eric Hosmer's well hit grounder with millions of people watching. On the other hand, she somehow missed the fact that the ball crossed over first base in fair territory, meaning she had just interfered with a live play.
Based on her priceless reaction, she seemed at least hopeful that the players, umpires, the 37,743 fans at Fenway Park and perhaps millions watching at home had simultaneously looked in the other direction. Immediately after realizing what she'd done, she innocently dropped the ball and calmly moved away from the evidence. Unfortunately, everybody was still watching, and there wasn't a place nearly big enough to hide.
A facial expression says one million words.
We've all had that moment where we realized we screwed up, though fortunately for most of us we haven't experienced it on such a big stage.
As a result of the gaffe, Hosmer was awarded a ground-rule double. Omar Infante, who was running from first base on the play, was only awarded third base, although the umpires had the option of giving him home as well if they felt he could have rounded the bases. It's a tough judgment call to make. It didn't appear like the ball was going to reach the corner, so they seem to have gotten it correct.
Fortunately, it wouldn't matter. Salvador Perez and Alex Gordon both followed with singles, allowing the two runners to score.
She's officially off the hook, which should make the incident easier for everyone to laugh at. And it doesn't hurt that the Red Sox ended up rallying for four runs in the sixth and ultimately pulled of a 5-4 win.
Poster Comment:
Oooops. ;)