re: HR Derby - is it frowned upon for a grown man to bring a glove?

I don't understand why they don't use a pitching machine and let the players choose the settings. I know that it can be cute every now and then when one of the contestant's dads or little league coaches throws to them, but if the goal is to find the best home run hitter, why not take away dependent variables.

Do you wear shoulder pads to a football game?

You bring/wear a glove and snag a HR, no one will really give a shite and will move on when the next one goes in the air (regular game or derby). You go barehanded and drop the ball, you will have a sore hand and depending on your reaction (due to the pain, not the drop) will be a meme for a while. You wear a glove and drop the ball (and TD finds out you are a poster), you will be ridiculed for a long time.
Proceed accordingly.

Rirruto

Who cares? I'll take my glove. Try to stop me.

A buddy and I used to sit in the right field upper deck at the old Ballpark in Arlington with our gloves and a sign that said. "No Net Zone".

Former Ranger player, GM & TV analyst, and dad to Ben, Tom Grieve used to criticize the guys who brought fishing nets to get foul balls during Ranger broadcasts. You would kind of have to be a regular listener, & know him to know he wasn't just joking about it. He really hated it. We agreed. My buddy, who made the sign, and brought it to the games, taped one of them. They showed the sign and talked about it on the air. We thought that was pretty cool. so we kept bringing it, and wearing our gloves up there.

Then next game they sent their "sideline" reporter John Rhadigan, and a camera crew out to visit us. John brought a fishing net with him. He told us to try to run him off when they turned on the camera. We told him he couldn't sit in our section with the net. I think my buddy stood up and pushed him, to keep him from sitting down. We we chanting, "NO NETS, NO NETS, NO NETS." Never saw that video, but lived it.


Our seats were on the front row of this section where the red star is located.



We used to serenade Juan Gonzales with Igor chants from up there. He would raise his glove to recognize us, then point towards the field, as though he we trying to tell us to leave him alone so he could keep his head in the game.

quote:

---

Thats not the goal though…

---

But what if I don't care if the batting practice pitcher is a 3 time cancer survivor whose plane was shot down in Vietnam, and instead I care more about the pitches being in the batter's wheelhouse.

The 1st season we had a partial season ticket package seven rows up just under the right field porch. That seat was great to see the field, and was great for batting practice, but you couldn't see who was the diamond vision to tell which players were coming to bat and so-forth You had to really keep up mentally there. The 2nd season we were behind home plate in the very top section. When it got really hot we would go up to the very top because air blew hard up there. It was hot air, but it felt cooler. The next year we had left field seats ten rows from the bottom. Those were the hottest seats we had. You were in direct sunlight at the beginning of games. The very 1st ever regular season Interleague game was a day game vs. the Giants. The sun that day was brutal. We had fun heckling Barry Bonds in the heat. He didn't acknowledge us at all. He was probably used to it.

I've sat in seats all over that stadium. I would get the partial season ticket, then buy tickets for specific series against the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Giants. The partial season tickets made it easier to get playoff tickets.

If I were still living there I'd get Astros tickets for sure.

Have you attended a derby? I went in 2021 to Coors and set in LF bleachers. I’m glad I took a glove. I didn’t catch anything, but with the timer now, you have bombs launched every few seconds. You need your head on a swivel. It’s a sea of hands and gloves out there. It’s wild, but that glove offers you some protection. There’s a couple hundred balls flying out of there. You want to make sure you’re prepared. Nobody will bat an eye at an adult with a glove.