You could call in an all-star grab at the All-Star Game. Well, sort of.
Hillsboro City Schools Treasurer Adam Zink was sitting in the right field bleachers Tuesday at the MLB All-Star Game at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati when Mike Trout’s leadoff, opposite-field home run came screaming toward him.
Zink said the smash by Los Angeles Angels’ Trout barely cleared the right field fence near the bullpen, hit the top of a concrete wall behind the fence, then grazed his cheek. He said he looked around, the ball was under the seat directly behind him, and he grabbed the ball.
“It was curving and it was smoked. It was more the kind of thought that it was going to hit me,” Zink said of his thoughts as the ball approached him. “Once it bounced it was like, get out of the way. It wasn’t one of my more impressive catches.”
After the game Trout became the first player ever named MVP in back-to-back MLB All-Star games. The hit is being called an All-Star Game cycle, because Trout has singled, doubled, tripled and now homered in the first at-bat of each of four All-Star games.
Zink said he’s not sure what he’s going to do with the ball.
“I don’t know if I’ll sell it, or maybe I’ll give it to Mike Trout, if I can get a ticket to a game out in Los Angeles for it,” Zink said.
He said he’s tried to see if he could get the ball authenticated, but is having trouble. He said he called Major League Baseball and was told MLB doesn’t authenticate anything touched by a fan. He said he’s tried calling several other places and was told they’ll authenticate autographs, but not baseballs.
Zink said he’s been to lots of baseball games, but Tuesday was the first time he ever got a ball at a Major League game.
Once he caught the ball, he said everyone around him was taking video, and wanted to hold the ball and have their picture taken with it. He obliged.
Zink said he got his ticket to the game through Craig Unger, a Greenfield native and McClain High School graduate who went on to become an All-American linebacker at Morehead State Unversity. Zink said he wasn’t worried about anyone taking the ball.
“No, I had Craig with me,” he said.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or on Twitter @13gillilandj.
