Newest Member Snags myGameBalls' 20,000th Ball
Rangers Fan Dirk Elliott Records Milestone Ball Just a Day After Joining the Site
by Alan Schuster, June 26, 2010Elliott, shown here at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, has snagged 31 balls so far this season.Dirk Elliott of Burleston, Texas joined myGameBalls.com on Wednesday, and about 24 hours later he recorded a historic snag. It was his second ball of the day and 27th of the season, so it definitely wasn't any kind of personal milestone. But it marked a major milestone for the entire myGameBalls community. Elliott's snag, achieved via a ball retriever at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, marked the 20,000th ball recorded on myGameBalls.com. Of course, as he reeled in the ball he had no idea just how significant the snag was and probably wouldn't have ever known had it not been for the email he received the next day congratulating him on the honor. "How cool is that?" he responded when he found out the news. Elliot had a big day with his ball retriever, and he was showing off his homemade contraption to a little girl and her grandmother when number 20,000 came his way. "I was showing them how I had constructed it when I heard a ball whiz by my right ear," he said. "The ball hit about a third of the way up the bleachers and then bounced back into the gap. I promptly retrieved it from the gap while thanking God the whole time that I was not laid out on the concrete with a concussion." Although myGameBalls.com was started just last year, balls recorded on the site date back to as early as 1977. There aren't many balls from the 70's or 80's, but the numbers start to grow rapidly beginning in the early 90's. The past three seasons have the highest totals -- 940 in 2007, 1,979 in 2008, and 4,653 in 2009. This season's total so far is 2,394.