Fair game on foul balls

Valley Life editor

As Mat-Su Miners pitcher Chris Mason stands atop the pitcher's mound at Hermon Brothers Field, looking in for the sign, Wesley Smith pulls his Miners' hat down around his eyes and punches his mitt with his fist in anticipation. As Mason goes into his windup, Smith crouches down to get into the best fielding position. The fastball speeds to the plate, and Smith is already on the balls of his feet, moving with the pitch. In this game, anticipation is everything -- you have to know where the batter is going to put the ball in play. The ball cracks the bat, and gets redirected back up the middle for a base hit -- but Smith doesn't move an inch, except to shrug his shoulders. Fair balls are foul in this game.Smith has a few years until he can suit up for the Miners. Until then, however, he's one of the legion of youngsters who tear around Hermon Brothers Field in a race for foul balls, the ultimate ballpark souvenir for young and old alike.

At Hermon Brothers, there is a distinct strategy to capturing foul balls.

"When a righty comes up, you want to go to the right side because a batter isn't going to pull a ball foul as many times as he's going to hit it to the right," Smith said. "And then the same thing with lefties."

That's why Smith and his good friend, Isaac Courson, have a well-worn path behind the concession stand at Hermon Brothers Field. From batter to batter, they shout at each other either "Lefty!" or "Righty!" and race from one side to the other. The reward is evident by the end of the game.

"You can average about two or three foul balls a game if you know what you're doing," Courson said. "That's 30 to 40 a season if you come to every home game."

Catching a foul ball is a thrill in itself, but getting a signature on it makes the experience even better.

"If the ball is in good shape, sometimes I get it autographed by the player who hit it," Courson said. "I've got Matt Ciaramella's autograph on a foul ball. He played great for the Miners a couple of years ago. He got drafted, and I have his autograph. I hope he ends up in the Major Leagues. I don't have a Major Leaguer's autograph yet."

Tuesday night's game against the Athletes In Action yielded foul balls for both boys. Smith made a spectacular play on a towering foul ball that landed just behind the stands, scooping it up on a short hop much like a big league first baseman. Courson won a spirited race for a foul ball that went off a vehicle parked just behind the concession stand, tracking it down like a centerfielder going for a ball hit into the gap.

Justin Robendale wasn't as fortunate. He missed out on a ball pulled hard down the leftfield stands. A race between five or six kids ensued, and Robendale said the eventual winner of the race "had too big of a headstart." He went home empty-handed, but he said that's not usually the case.

"If you come during the week, there aren't as many people here, and your chances are a lot better," Robendale said. "The most I've got this year is three balls in one night. There weren't a lot of people here that night. I've got seven balls all season."

Like Courson and Smith, Robendale said he likes to have his foul balls signed by the Miners, although he admits he doesn't have a favorite player.

"I just wait for them when the game is over and ask them to sign it. On one ball, I have eight signatures," Robendale said. "They're all my favorites."

Getting a foul ball isn't as easy as just standing around and waiting. At Hermon Brothers Field, there is a small sliver of fence between the box seats and the bleachers, giving each foul-ball chaser a 3-foot wide window to watch the game.

If the foul ball should be hit toward them, they must also contend with the small dimensions of the field -- it butts up against the Alaska State Fair's property, and a barbed-wire fence restricts them from entering the area where a majority of the balls are hit -- the proverbial place on the other side where the grass is greener for foul-ball chasers.

"You could get probably 10 balls a game if you were allowed in there," Robendale said.