Posted August 14, 201113 yr I personally think Zack Hample is insufferable, but he recently visited Miami and stopped by the new Marlins stadium on his way to Sun Life. Check it out: http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com/2011/08/07/8511-at-sun-life-stadium/
August 14, 201113 yr I wish I could get all those stupid balls in his collection and throw them at him.
August 14, 201113 yr He did have some great pics of the new stadium and the interior of sunlife Which seems to be a rarity. Probably don't mean much to you guys who regularly attend but I have wanted to see the stadium since I wouldn't be able to make a trip. I much prefer Hample to the Happy Youngster.
August 14, 201113 yr I've had the run of the upper deck many times growing up going to games. It was always fun to run around the ghost-town parts of dead center. Even more weird to sit there during our rare post season appearances. Question: In the pic looking down the street with parking garages on the left and right behind "deeep right field" are there going to be commercial spaces for rent on the ground floors of those garages? I remember hearing about incorporating mixed-use commercial space in an attempt to create a yawkee way or wrigleyville atmosphere. I'm just really, really f***ing tired of seeing boring parking garages...redevelopment boards love em.
August 15, 201113 yr It's hard to have an ounce of respect for a grown man in his 30s with no real job who travels around the country on his parents' dollar to act like a total douchebag at ballparks and steal balls from children. I've seen him around plenty because he comes to Camden Yards a lot; to call him "insufferable" is too kind.
August 15, 201113 yr It's hard to have an ounce of respect for a grown man in his 30s with no real job who travels around the country on his parents' dollar to act like a total douchebag at ballparks and steal balls from children. I've seen him around plenty because he comes to Camden Yards a lot; to call him "insufferable" is too kind. What about the book sales?
August 15, 201113 yr Right, right he does have 3 or so books now. He trys to do some good charitable work too. Still dont care much for him though.
August 15, 201113 yr Book sales for the types of things that he writes (baseball is a niche market in general, but he's not writing Moneyball, he's writing about snagging baseballs), do not collect a lot in royalties. He comes from a wealthy Manhattan family; that's how he supports his "hobby." Any joker can write a book and get it published, but very few people can rely on it as a source of income. And he doesn't really do "charitable work." He has people make pledges for the number of balls he snags. It's something that he tacks on in order to try to legitimize what he does. That's not real charity work.
August 15, 201113 yr Well god, he could just be a dousch bag if he wanted and not do anything. Atleast he is making some sort of attempt to cover what he does. Hes doing alot more for charity then most people ever do in there life and if that means he is snagging balls from a stadium and taking pledges then so be it. Im not going to down a guy for that especially when there is always the alternative of just being a dick for the fun of it. As I said Im not a fan either, balls are for kids, but im not going to down the guy for atleast trying to do something good.
August 16, 201113 yr That's not "doing" anything for charity. He's just got a couple of people who enjoy his adventures who are willing to put some cash down for when he snags a ball. It's not like he's actually fund raising. Anybody who does real charity work would roll their eyes at what he does. He's hardly lifting a finger. You are trying to make it sound like he's motivated by some sort of charitable cause. I see no indication that there is any truth to that. He wants to continue to his hobby but he's too embarrassed to be a completely bald 35 year old stealing balls from kids a fraction of his age, so he adds the "pledging" component to try to legitimize it. This would be like an alcoholic setting up a website saying that he's going to hit the bars and would like donors to pledge X amount of dollars for every shot he takes. In other worlds, he gets to feed his addiction, but it's the other people making the real sacrifice and charitable contributions.
August 16, 201113 yr So people who do the MS Walk or things like that aren't doing something charitable? Same thing. People pledge money to see him do things. Sure it's not as great as just writing a check himself but he is still raising money for charity.
August 16, 201113 yr So people who do the MS Walk or things like that aren't doing something charitable? Same thing. People pledge money to see him do things. Sure it's not as great as just writing a check himself but he is still raising money for charity. In those cases, most of the credit still goes to the people actually shelling out the money. However, the people doing the walk are still sacrificing their time and energy, so they have more legitimate motivations and deserve some credit as well Hample would spend every day hawking balls regardless of the pledges, so he's not really sacrificing anything. It's also hard to interpret his motivations as being altruistic. The context you describe is different from what Hample does. Please explain to me where Hample is being altruistic and making sacrifices for charity, because I don't see it.
August 16, 201113 yr Alright Pen, I normally agree on most things with you, but not on this, and that's fine. Yeah he's not going out there and giving away his own money as far as we know but like I said atleast hes acting like he cared about something in addition to snagging balls even if he don't. Either way people are putting money towards something.
August 16, 201113 yr If anything, I think we can all agree he's a douchebag simply for being a Mets fan.
August 16, 201113 yr Alright Pen, I normally agree on most things with you, but not on this, and that's fine. Yeah he's not going out there and giving away his own money as far as we know but like I said atleast hes acting like he cared about something in addition to snagging balls even if he don't. Either way people are putting money towards something. So what is he doing now that he would not be doing without the "charity?" You seem to be conceding that even if he has some "charitable" intentions, he does very little himself. So what are you even trying to argue? I feel like I've made more than a strong enough case as to why he's a douche.
August 16, 201113 yr If anything, I think we can all agree he's a douchebag simply for being a Mets fan. Some Mets fan. He wears the opposing team's gear at home games in order to get balls thrown to him.
August 16, 201113 yr If anything, I think we can all agree he's a douchebag simply for being a Mets fan. Some Mets fan. He wears the opposing team's gear at home games in order to get balls thrown to him. I don't think he's a Mets fan. Before he said he is not a fan of any team, he just likes baseball. He goes to a lot of Mets games because he is in NY and apparently the Yankees stadium is very bad for moving around trying to get balls.
August 16, 201113 yr Alright Pen, I normally agree on most things with you, but not on this, and that's fine. Yeah he's not going out there and giving away his own money as far as we know but like I said atleast hes acting like he cared about something in addition to snagging balls even if he don't. Either way people are putting money towards something. So what is he doing now that he would not be doing without the "charity?" You seem to be conceding that even if he has some "charitable" intentions, he does very little himself. So what are you even trying to argue? I feel like I've made more than a strong enough case as to why he's a douche. And over and over I have agreed he is a dousch. The whole time I have just been pointing out that atleast something good is coming from it, considering that he could just be.a dick and not even take pledges or what ever. I'm not tryin to convince you that he's not a dousch, you have already made your point that you hate the guy and seem to continue to ignore the point of what I'm trying to say. I'm just saying that there are plenty of other things to down the guy for then atleast makin an effort to do something for charity, however small that effort may be even if your definition of charitable is different then mine. Call him a dousch for taking balls from kids, wearing other teams gear, stealing balls from the playing field with that glove trick, trespassing... But not because money is being put to good use.
August 16, 201113 yr Forgive me but it just seems like you hate the man and are trying you best to delegitimize him, Pinguino.He has fun, regardless of how, he makes money for charity. you're coming across as a hater. Which is fine you don't have to like he guy, but it seems like you're obsessing. And if you've ever read his blogs he sometimes gives his balls away and teaches kids how to get their own. It's not like he's selfish.
August 17, 201113 yr I've had the run of the upper deck many times growing up going to games. It was always fun to run around the ghost-town parts of dead center. Even more weird to sit there during our rare post season appearances. Question: In the pic looking down the street with parking garages on the left and right behind "deeep right field" are there going to be commercial spaces for rent on the ground floors of those garages? I remember hearing about incorporating mixed-use commercial space in an attempt to create a yawkee way or wrigleyville atmosphere. I'm just really, really f***ing tired of seeing boring parking garages...redevelopment boards love em. Anyone????? anyone know the answer? commercial space? anybody got an idea?
August 18, 201113 yr Forgive me but it just seems like you hate the man and are trying you best to delegitimize him, Pinguino.He has fun, regardless of how, he makes money for charity. you're coming across as a hater. Which is fine you don't have to like he guy, but it seems like you're obsessing. And if you've ever read his blogs he sometimes gives his balls away and teaches kids how to get their own. It's not like he's selfish. If I'm a "hater," then so be it. I don't care. Obviously I've encountered him in person and think very little of him and think that he should be "deligitimized" from most of the positive press he gets. Conan O'Brien is one of the few people who tried to give him a hard time (despite not blatantly so) and I admire him for that. It's not an obsession, either. It's mostly confusion as to why someone here who admits that he doesn't like Hample would go to such lengths to try to defend him. Kids would rather be tossed balls from players and coaches than be handed one from some guy in the stands. If he cared about the kids, he wouldn't be the only guy above 7 years old who darts to the edge of the dugout between innings with a glove in hand to take balls being tossed toward kids. Yes, I've seen him do this.
August 18, 201113 yr Zack Hample here. I found this forum because I'm getting a bunch of blog hits from it. I'm glad you guys are enjoying my photos of the Marlins' new stadium, but I'm sorry to see that you all hate me so much. I guess you're not aware that back in 2009, I paid a web developer $500 to set up my website so that it could accept charitable pledges for the charity -- so yeah, I've given plenty of money and time to make sure that Pitch In For Baseball gets the attention and donations that it needs. As for Conan O'Brien, you really shouldn't praise him for what he did. Before I went on his show, one of the segment producers asked me if there was anything that I wanted to talk about on the air. I told her that the ONE thing I wanted to discuss -- more than my newest book, which really could have benefitted from a plug on national television -- was the charity. She promised me that Conan would ask me about it. Well, not only did Conan NOT bring it up, but when I forced it into the conversation, he cut me off and made fun of me -- twice. He's not a comedian. He's simply a jerk. Also, for the record, I'm earning royalties from my last book and do plenty of other work that doesn't get publicized. I don't take baseballs from kids. I don't know who the guy is who claims to have seen me doing that, but it's simply not my style. Tonight at Nationals Park, I gave four baseballs to kids. The day before I gave away five. When I caught Mike Trout's first major leaguer homer in Baltimore on July 24th, a fan offered me hundreds of dollars for it on the spot, but I gave it back to Trout instead, no questions asked. It's really a shame that you guys have such a negative opinion of me. I'm doing pretty good stuff in the world, but I guess it's hard to see past all the stereotypes and all the crap that gets churned out by the media. And I'm most certainly not a Mets fan. I was 20 years ago. At this point, I only have favorite players, not a favorite team. Thanks for reading.
August 18, 201113 yr Conan just seemed to be acting like you are a little too old to be doing what you do. I know that's not usually the response you get from people in the media, but not everyone thinks that ball hawking is something that should be valorized when you are a grown man. You don't think that these kids would prefer finding/catching these balls themselves than having you hand one to them?
