Articles

Pelescak Snags McCutchen Home Run Ball
With an Assist From Erik Jabs, Pittsburgh Ballhawk Tracks Down Out-of-the-Park Homer
by Alan Schuster, September 11, 2011
Pelescak displays his seventh career game home run ball.If you're a regular reader of myGameBalls.com, you probably noticed that PNC Park ballhawk Nick Pelescak recorded a game home run on Wednesday night off the bat of Andrew McCutchen. If you took the time to review the highlight video from MLB.com, you definitely noticed a fan in the center field bleachers running like a wild man out of his section and onto the concourse to try to chase down the homer. And of course you probably put two and two together and figured that the wild man must have been Pelescak. You were wrong. Pelescak, it turns out, was actually in left field, wishing he was in right-center where the action was. He didn't even make an attempt on the homer until he got a call from friend and fellow ballhawk Erik Jabs. Jabs, seated on the club level, informed Pelescak that the ball had left the stadium on the bounce. Pelescak raced to the scene and found another PNC ballhawk, Jim Saylor, searching through the weeds for the ball. Quickly surveying the area, Pelescak made a startling discovery -- the ball was not in the weeds but was lying on the grass in plain sight. He picked it up and informed Saylor that he had unknowingly run past the gamer. Pelescak canvassed the area for other balls, reviewed the replay when he got home, and even went as far as calling the Pirates to make sure another fan hadn't snagged the ball before it left the park. In the end he determined that he could say with confidence that he possessed Andrew McCutchen's 49th career home run ball. It was Pelescak's 7th career gamer, but for this one he was quick to give credit where credit was due. "Major, Major assist by Erik Jabs," he wrote on his blog. "We always help each other out when possible but this was truly a great assist, thanks Erik." Read more on Nick Pelescak's Blog


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