Eric Byrnes sells out to catch foul ball, perhaps gets Dan Haren in trouble
If you remember anything about Eric Byrnes during his 11-year MLB career, it’s probably the fact he was always willing to sacrifice his body to make every play he possibly could in the outfield.
Now that he’s retired and working as a studio analyst for MLB Network, it would appear little about Byrnes has changed. Only now when he risks his body to haul in a baseball, it’s for his own personal gratification rather to aid one of his pitchers.
We know as much, because we witnessed Byrnes put it all on the line Thursday night at Yankee Stadium as he attended the Marlins-Yankees game as a fan. Seated in the third deck and equipped with nothing other than his cell phone, Byrnes went aggressively after a foul ball off the bat of Miami’s Adeiny Hechavarria and ended up tumbling over a row of seats to make the bare hand catch.
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If would appear, however, that Byrnes nearly tumbled over his own son. We don’t see his son initially, but Byrnes hoists the ball and his son after making the grab.
How did Dan Haren know it was Eric Byrnes?
Here’s the explanation from Byrnes, which given the Pablo Sandoval Instagram controversy this week might not go over well in MLB circles.
“The ball was hit, right? I’m texting Dan Haren in one hand.”
At this point, Mark Derosa interrupts to point out the Sandoval controversy, to which Byrnes said he was just thanking Haren for the seat. Of course, we don’t know if the text exchange was on-going or if Byrnes was just sending the message so Haren would see it after the game. Haren wasn’t actually pitching, so one would think it’s not as big a deal. But that timing was suspicious enough that the league might send Haren a warning.
Here’s more from Byrnes.
“I’m texting Dan saying thanks a lot of the seat. I’m dealing with the kid, Bam Bam, and the foam finger. And then, at the same time, I’m in mid-chug of my cold, frosty adult beverage. So all the sudden I see this ball coming and it’s immediately, the first thing to go is the cell phone.Tossed it. Completely shattered.
“Cell phone gone. The next thing, the kid, gone. Tossed him out of the way. OK, I got two things out of the way. The last one’s the cold adult beverage. Properly put that back in the cup(holder), and then just went after it. And you can’t really tell. There’s a guy underneath me and another kid underneath me.”
It was a little reckless, sure, but we should point out that Byrnes never appeared to seriously put anyone else in danger, despite how he might have described it. Hey, he may have been a ball player, but everybody embellishes their foul ball story a little bit.
One thing is always for sure: Eric Byrnes is a showman.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
