Do you remember the first time you found out that you were supposed to throw back opposing home runs at Wrigley Field. 

I have been lucky enough to experience some awesome things at Wrigley Field. Some of those include:

  • Sitting in the Miller Lite suite. It's the only place in the park where you can get a Miller product. Plus there's a dessert cart.
  • Hanging out in the radio broadcast booth during a game.
  • I went to a game by myself in the early 2000s and saw a grand slam AND Sosa, Alou, and Henry Rodriguez went back-to-back-to-back HRs.
  • About a half dozen opening days, one of the best vibes at any ballpark.
  • I've been told that the bachelor party that we had in the bleachers was fun before we were all kicked out (NOT MY FAULT) but honestly that whole affair is a little hazy.

One thing that is still on my Wrigley bucket list is getting to throw an opposing player's home run ball back onto the field.

If you're not familiar with the tradition, it has been going on for about 50 years. No one is really sure how or when it was started but if you catch an opposing player's home run at Wrigley, you need to throw it (or a strategically swapped out spare baseball) back onto the field. You might be able to get away with not throwing it back during a weekday afternoon game, but if you don't throw it back, you're going to be serenaded with a chorus of "Send. It. Back." that will get louder and louder every minute you think about holding on to a souvenir.

What I didn't know is that not everyone thinks this is cool. There were a lot of people in the comments of the above video that said something to the effect of "Why are you robbing your child of a lifelong memory by having him appease a bunch of drunks at Wrigley." First of all, how dare you. Second of all, what do you think the kid will remember more, having a ball that <checks notes> Keibert Ruiz hit for a home run on a random Tuesday in May of 2021, OR have video evidence for the rest of your life of you and your dad having a bonding moment AND having thousands of fans cheer for you. The choice is pretty simple.

Congrats kid, I'm now jealous of a 5-year-old whose dad wears Kyle Farnsworth jerseys to games still. It's a weird world we're living in right now.

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