It’s not really a thing, here, to do so. People will occasionally run off with sports balls, etcetera, but it’s not a commonplace thing.
Or is keeping these items just something we (people outside the US) see in movies or on news stories that make it seem like a regular thing?
When did it become a thing if it is a commonplace thing? Or has it always been a thing?
If it was always a thing, then isn’t it weird that the baseball league would be willing to let kids take home free baseballs when a famous athlete literally played in no shoes, and was nicknamed for it?
So many questions…
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Imagine you were a blade of grass, just chilling. Then one day some guy head shots you with a golf ball from a hundred yards away. You’d be one very unlucky blade of grass.
That but opposite.
It’s a cheap souvenir that can hold sentimental value for the ones who acquire it. For the fan, it’s something neat they get to take with them after the immediate moment has ended. For the stadium, it’s a couple dollars that give excitement to the crowd, the hope that you might be the one to catch it next. It’s engagement that brings people into the game.
Essentially: low “risk” (cost), high reward.
It’s typically only baseballs and pucks that fans are allowed to keep. Basketballs and footballs are usually retrieved from the fans and returned to play.
The value of the baseball itself is much less than the lifetime value of a fan who has that baseball as a treasured memory on the shelf.
A baseball or a puck is less than $5 in addition baseballs with scuffs on them are usuly given away for practice and can’t be used in a game again. Pucks can’t be used once they’re deformed and can’t be used for the rest of the game once it’s warmed up. They’re made of rubber and it’s not terribly worth it to go collect it or wait for the fan to give it back
> isn’t it weird that the baseball league would be willing to let kids take home free baseballs when a famous athlete literally played in no shoes, and was nicknamed for it?
I’m not sure if you’re joking, so just in case you’re not, “Shoeless Joe” Jackson earned that nickname after a single game in the minor leagues, in which he voluntarily played in his socks because his new cleats were hurting his feet. It isn’t that the league couldn’t afford to give him shoes.
That being said, in Jackson’s time and earlier, although the major leagues encouraged and even mandated refreshing the baseballs during the game (the balls quickly became misshapen and dirty, and the pitchers liked it that way), the teams themselves *were* very stingy and did everything they could to minimize the number of baseballs required to get through the afternoon. During the 19th century they had staff members go into the stands to pluck stray balls out of the spectators’ hands. The very reason you, as an outsider, know Jackson’s name at all is because his cheap owner wouldn’t pay the players enough, leading them to earn money conspiring with gamblers.
Jackson played at the tail end of the “dead ball era” when balls were rarely replaced, and it was only in the late 1910s that the league finally cracked down and started enforcing the regular cycling of the ball (in part because they realized that a fresh ball was livelier and traveled farther, and home runs were a spectacle that brought in more fans).
Tennis balls get replaced during play the most. Once they get removed from play, because they are worn out enough to effect gameplay. Keeping a constant supply of new balls ensures a more consisted game. So tossing them to the crowd is just a nice souvenir for a spectator.
Baseballs similarly are changed out almost as often for fresh balls due to the damage they sustain. So it’s no big deal for the crowd to get a ball that is being removed from the game anyways.
The same with hockey. The pucks take damage, so keeping fresh pucks in the game ensures a more consistent game.
American Football balls are changed out to a much lesser extent but they are changed out during gameplay. So if a player score a TD and decides to toss the ball to the crowd, it’s really not a big deal.
I can’t speak for soccer, but i would think they would be changed out for fresh balls at least somewhat. They will also be taking damage over the course of the game. But I’ve never watched soccer so i have never seen it happen.
You generally won’t see this happen with basketball though. They do have a few extra balls that can be used, but since they take so little damage, there is little reason to change the ball out for a fresh one. You might see one tossed to the crowd after the game ends, especially if it’s a big game or had a big finish but they generally aren’t tossing them to the crowd because they aren’t getting replaced regularly like they are in other sports.
So it all comes down to just how often the particular item is replaced during gameplay. “Balls” that get replaced frequently, there’s no reason not to give them to a fan.
As far as the whole shoeless joe thing. That was a long time ago before baseball was a big money sport and really has no relation to what you’re asking about.
Baseballs and pucks, yes. Footballs, typically not. They’re cheap, the league/teams have thousands of them, it’d be too difficult to hunt them down in crowds and not worth time/effort. In baseball, a single ball is only in play a few pitches anyway before it gets too scuffed to keep using without giving pitcher unfair advantage.
In addition to the answers given, ice hockey pucks are kept cold. They keep them in a freezer, usually in the penalty box, and it isn’t that they wear out so much they need constant replacement as much as that they warm up and become too soft to behave as they do when cold.
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