Zack Hample vows to return historic HR balls to Albert Pujols, Aaron Judge if he catches them
MLB collector and fan Zack Hample is a polarizing figure within the baseball community.
Individuals such as Jared Schwartz of the New York Post have referred to Hample as "baseball’s most obnoxious fan" known for being a "widely-loathed adult baseball collector who attends hundreds of games in pursuit of obtaining stray balls."
Other media members have also taken shots at Hample:
As Grace Raynor pointed out for the MLB website back in July 2015, Hample retrieved Alex Rodriguez's 3,000th hit, a home run, and returned it to the then-New York Yankees slugger. The Yankees responded by donating $150,000 to the Pitch In For Baseball charity.
St. Louis Cardinals icon Albert Pujols and current Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge are both chasing history in the closing weeks of the ongoing season. Pujols is three home runs shy of 700 for his Hall-of-Fame career, while Judge began Thursday four round-trippers short of tying the all-time American League record for a single campaign of 61 set in 1961 by Yankees legend Roger Maris.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Hample declared he would return a historic home run ball hit over a wall by Pujols and/or Judge to where such a souvenir belongs if he gets his hands on it.
"I personally won't ask for that much," Hample explained. "With the A-Rod (3,000th hit) ball, the Yankees ended up donating $150k to a children's baseball charity that I've been supporting for a number of years. So, if I do get a historic baseball, I'd love to give it to the player that hits it, encourage the player or the team to make a donation but I'm certainly not going to make a demand or anything like that."
Thus far, Hample claims to have acquired 12,000 baseballs at ballparks during his lifetime. He'll be on the hunt for at least two more before the regular season ends on Oct. 5.
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