Royals fan: I didn't want to be Bartman

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Royals fan Caleb Humphreys didn’t want to be Jeffrey Maier or Steve Bartman. He just wanted to catch a home-run ball in his first postseason game.

That’s what happened Friday night in the second inning Game 6 of the ALCS, when Humphreys outreached his little brother in order to snag a big fly by Mike Moustakas that gave the Royals a two-run lead. There were some anxious moments, however, when the Blue Jays protested that Humphreys had reached too far over the fence in right, and persuaded the umpires to check video replay to ensure the home run was kosher.

Here’s how Humphreys saw Moustakas’ fly ball:

“I waited, I saw it coming and my eyes got big,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming.’ I just went out and caught it.”

Blue Jays outfielders Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista seemed certain Humphreys had reached into the field of play, but their views of what happened (and most views on TV) can be deceptive. Humphreys did not think he had interfered.

Caleb Humphreys shows off Mike Moustakas’ second-inning home run. (CBS Sports)

“I saw Kevin [Pillar] reach up and he was pointing at me and was like, ‘Oh, you reached over, you reached over!'” Humphreys said.

At the time, Humphreys was more concerned with other fans nearby, including his younger brother, Haden, possibly getting in the way of him catching the ball. But then the call came that umpires would check replay.

“I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go,'” Humphreys said. “Yeah, I was pretty confident because I knew I wasn’t over, but if they reversed it, I would feel worse than anyone else.”

The Blue Jays might not agree (or even believe it) but Humphreys’ catch checked out in the eyes of the replay officials in New York. The result stood, and he had a great souvenir with no stigma (or much less stigma) attached than those of other fans. Certainly he won’t go down like Bartman, who infamously got tangled with Cubs outfielder Moises Alou in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley Field, and whose name has been cursed by many ever since. The same goes for Maier, who in the 1996 playoffs reached over the right-field fence at Yankee Stadium to help Derek Jeter hit a home run and rob the Orioles of an out.

Humphreys is only 19, but knows his baseball history and said he thought of both incidents.

“I thought of the Cubs guy,” Humphreys said. “I was thinking of that situation. I didn’t want to be that guy.”

As the game continued, a reporter asked Humphreys to recreate his reach, but he declined. Probably smartly.

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Humphreys said. “I don’t want to take a picture of where I was at and have it show up somewhere and make it look like I was over. I’m pretty sure I was back.”

It was kind of a lark that the Humphreys family went to the game. His mom got tickets and casually asked everyone if they wanted a family night out together.

“I have a very cool mom,” Humphreys said.

Kansas City agrees. The Blue Jays might not think so.

Home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson tells Jays manager John Gibbons what he doesn’t want to hear. (USATSI)

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