As Aaron Judge crushes each one of his historic homers, one question in particular has started to circulate. Who will be the lucky individual that catches his 61st and possibly 62nd home runs? There will always be the Youtube stars who catch home runs and foul balls, like Zack Hample. However, the trend of older individuals hunting down batted balls is starting to get old, particularly for Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell.
After recent incidents involving fans hunting for autographs or piling onto each other for home run balls, something has to be done.
Brewers’ Counsell States There Should Be a Limit
The other night when Aaron Judge hit his most recent home run, what looked like a melee broke out. A teenager and his friends were lucky, or perhaps unlucky, individuals who caught the ball. They were stuck at the bottom of a dog pile for a short amount of time.
Security pulled them off and gave the individuals a chance to meet Aaron Judge. The Yankees had a great gesture in the end for the fans. However, not everyone is hitting their 60th home run of the season. For the average fan, getting robbed of your home run ball will go unnoticed. It has unfortunately become a greater issue as of late.
When Brewers manager Craig Counsell was asked whether or not there should be an age limit for gloves at a game, he responded quickly.
“I think there should be an age limit, yes. I’m in favor of a national age limit at bringing a glove to the park,” Counsell stated to reporters from WTMJ.
Should the Brewers Institute an Age Limit?
Counsell went on to state that he believes the national age limit should be 14. It is certainly difficult to determine what age is an intelligent cutoff. While gloves help make the catch significantly easier, too many fans believe they can’t get a ball without a glove. Brewers fans in particular back the statements Counsell made.
Perhaps the greater issue is that older fans are still hunting for memorabilia. There is nothing wrong with wanting to get a foul or home run ball, but there is a way to do it. Taking chances or opportunities away from children and younger fans is never the answer, yet there are fans who choose to think otherwise.
Removing gloves from people over say 14 or 15 may not solve the issue at hand. Greedy fans will always exist and banning fans who partake in bad behavior would be a better option. For example, the fans who had elbowed younger fans try to get an autograph at the MLB All Star Game. Nothing ever happened to the individual of note, but his actions were a cause for concern. Luckily, there aren’t any videos of this occurring among Brewers’ fans.
Took getting an autograph to another level 😅#AllStarGame pic.twitter.com/vbaaxYGWvj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 19, 2022
It is the behavior that doesn’t involve gloves that is the real issue at MLB games currently. While imposing a ban would be nice, and perhaps helpful, the logistics seem difficult. What variable will represent the age cutoff? What sort of data will determine who should be able to bring gloves and who can’t? Also, what about the older fans who still bring gloves to the game and just enjoy the game harmlessly? Perhaps it is a situation that may never be fully resolved.
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