Larry Brown Sports

When Amar’e Stoudemire suffered an injury by punching a fire extinguisher during the NBA playoffs, most of us reacted by laughing at his expense. Stoudemire is an NBA superstar who had a lapse in judgment when his team needed him the most, so in many ways he deserved the criticism. However, he says some of the details from the incident are inaccurate. He didn’t actually punch the thing, you dummies.

“It wasn’t a punch at all, actually,” Stoudemire said during an interview with Artrell and Andy on FOX Sports Radio. “It was more like a slap against the wall, but I caught the edge of the fire extinguisher. Some people think I balled my fist up and punched through a glass fire extinguisher, which is totally opposite of the truth. It was more like a smack against the wall, kind of a backhand or a reach back slap across the wall and caught the edge of the fire extinguisher.”

Well in that case — does it really matter? A glance at the gruesome picture Amar’e tweeted of his stitched up hand would seem to indicate he is telling the truth. It was more of an open-handed slap than a punch, but either way it was a bonehead move. Stoudemire also wants everyone to know that the injury was not caused by frustration.

“I think a lot of people confused my passion with frustration,” he explained. “I’m such a passionate player. I want to win so bad to where sometimes I want to win, so I bring my passion and it gets confused with frustration.”

Again, does it matter? We did feel sorry for Amar’e after seeing the injury and knowing that it cost him during the playoffs, but a simple “it was dumb of me” would have sufficed when the hosts asked him about the incident. The fact that it was a slap instead of a punch and done out of passion and not frustration is not going to stop people from wearing this shirt.

Thanks to Sports Radio Interviews for transcribing the interview
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Catching a ball at a game has to be one of the greatest thrills a fan can have. I’m speaking out of assumption since I’ve never had the fortune of catching a ball at a game, but it sure looks awesome. Think about how lucky one has to be to even have the opportunity to catch a ball. Out of thousands of fans in attendance, the ball has to be hit to you. From there, you actually have to catch the ball, which is easier said than done. Take for instance what happened with a fan at the White Sox game.

As seen in the video above, one fan at the White Sox-Twins game on Wednesday had not one … but two balls hit to him during the game. And he missed both of them! To make matters worse, two other fans in a section nearby were able to snag balls.

For every story of failure like this one, we have incredible success stories to balance it out. Maybe this fan can get a lesson from the Orioles fan who once snagged three balls in the same game.

Sometimes the best plays fans make on foul balls are the ones they don’t intend to make. We saw a prime example of that at Wrigley Field on Thursday night. Hanley Ramirez sent a ball chopping down the third base line in the second inning and it hopped up into the stands, bounced off a woman’s forehead and landed directly in her beer cup. It was a nice play, albeit one that she couldn’t duplicate if she tried. We aren’t ready to say it was as impressive as the popcorn bucket catch or the kid who leaned over the bullpen, but it’s definitely up there.

But the real story here is why the guy she was with was so adamant about wrestling the beer cup with the ball in it away from her. Was he trying to hog the spotlight or what? The ball smacked her in the forehead and landed in her beer. She deserves the credit. Take a step back.

A fan at Friday’s Padres-Reds game at Petco Park in San Diego learned the hard way why you always have to keep your head in the game. Travis Decker was drilled in the chest by a Will Venable foul ball and admitted during an interview with FOX Sports San Diego that he wasn’t paying attention because he was busy posting to Facebook from his mobile phone.

We’ve seen fans make catches at games while on their cell phone, but most of the time you’re going to end up hurt if a ball comes your way and you’re busy with your phone. The only good news for Decker is at least he wasn’t hit in the head like this guy.

If you’re going to bring a glove to the game, you might as well either be under the age of 12 or planning to make a great play. In fact, why not do both? A young Tigers fan had that covered on Tuesday night as he lunged over the bullpen to make a great stab on Austin Jackson’s fourth-inning, game-tying home run against the Twins.

The Twins fan who used his glove to make a nice grab a few weeks ago scored points because he was on his cell phone, but at the end of the day he’s a grown man. The play should have probably been made bare-handed. So far this week it’s kids who are doing it big. We already had this amazing popcorn bucket catch and now this. The young fans are on fire.

Bringing babies to the ballpark is a scary thing. Great snag or not, I cringe every time I see a play like this on a highlight reel. As you can see from the video above, another fan made a tremendous play on a foul ball this week while holding a baby in his arm. From the the look of it the guy had a strong grip on the child, but I held my breath when he lunged for the ball. I guess if you’re going to bring a baby to the ballpark you might as well incorporate him or her into the act of souvenir collecting.

At least this Braves fan didn’t dangle his child over the wall to make the play like some fans we’ve seen. However, he is hardly a hero like the fan who caught the foul ball that was heading directly for the baby. That, in my opinion, is how you make a play.

And the award for “Boss of the Year” goes to: the young kid at the Astros game who straight up caught a foul ball in his popcorn bucket during Thursday night’s game between Houston and San Diego. Who needs a glove? You’re going to buy snacks anyway, and those snacks can be just as effective in capturing a souvenir as a glove can be. If there were any scouts in attendance in Houston Thursday night, I hope they were taking note of this kid’s hand-eye coordination. Not only did he come down with the ball, he had to go up and challenge a guy that was three times his size to get it. This young man is a 100% winner.

I don’t know what it is about Astros fans, but they seem to make the whole foul ball thing look easy. Last season, we saw a fan in Houston make this amazing catch and he also wasn’t wearing a glove. I made the mistake of calling this guy a boss a couple of weeks ago, but the popcorn kid just made me realize how much better non-glove catches truly are. Nicely done, kid.

H/T Deadspin