Red Sox fan misses catch but redeems himself with second chance

Second chances don’t come often in life. You rarely get the opportunity to redo something you screwed up or missed out on. On Sunday, one Boston Red Sox fan was in the right place at the right time not just once, but twice, and he got to correct a pretty embarrassing mistake.

The Red Sox were playing the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, and at one point during the game, a foul ball was hit behind home plate, and it reached the upper level of Fenway Park. As the ball came down, a fan reached for it. It touched his hand. And then, just like that, it was gone. The fan couldn’t hold on to it, and the ball bounced off his hands and into the seats below.

That would be a hard thing to live with, especially since there’s video evidence. That he missed the ball is itself good story, but most people would probably rather have the ball itself than a story about how the ball clanked off their hand.

But fate wasn’t done with this Red Sox fan. In the seventh inning, David Ortiz hit a foul ball to the exact same spot. And this time, that fan was ready. As the ball came down toward him, he had both hands out ready to catch it. The ball fell in, and he held on.

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To celebrate, he high fived the people around him so hard that I thought their hands might fall off. He was pumped, and he had every right to be. Second chances are rare; he may not have been ready for the ball the first time, but he seized the moment when it came to him again. And catching the ball after missing it is a much, much better story to to tell.

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