There may have not been a more fitting person to snag Aaron Judge’s 61st home run, which tied Roger Maris’ single-season American League home run record as well as a Yankees record, than Toronto Blue Jays fan Frankie Lasagna. If only the ball had been a few feet higher.
No, Lasagna didn’t catch the ball, but he came oh so close when the historic shot went sailing into the Blue Jays’ bullpen just out of the reach of his stretched-out glove. The 37-year-old Torontonian had bought tickets in the front row of the 100s section hoping it would have improved his chances to catch the milestone dinger.
“Two more feet and I would have had it,” he told the Canadian Press on Wednesday night. “I needed a fishing net and I would have got it.”
No one got the ball 🤣 pic.twitter.com/KS1Nr3fiTr
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) September 29, 2022
Lasagna had brought his baseball mitt for the potentially historic night, which is something he said he would have not done otherwise. The restaurant owner threw his glove in frustration after the ball hit off the wall and into the Jays bullpen.
“The disbelief comes over you and just the shock and the amazement,” Lasagna said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I almost had it.'”
He told the Canadian Press that he would have held onto the ball and tried to negotiate with the Yankees to try and get Judge to come to his restaurant. Blue Jays bullpen coach Matt Buschmann was the one that collected the ball and handed it over to the Yankees so that it could be kept safe.
The home run was the culmination of more than a week of intense focus on Judge as the New York sports world waited to see when he would tie Maris’ 1961 record.
It had been bantered about for weeks over what the fan who caught the ball would do with it. And when sports reporter Sara Walsh, who works for Fox Sports and NFL Network, saw that her husband Buschmann had been the one to collect the ball and give it back, she wasn’t too pleased.
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“Oh cool. He just handed that back without checking to see if our house is still here? I’d next like to announce our divorce,” Walsh joked on Twitter.
Oh cool. He just handed that back without checking to see if our house is still here? I’d next like to announce our divorce. pic.twitter.com/37HmHIoomS
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) September 29, 2022
Walsh, who has been married to Buschmann since 2014, was down at the couple’s home in Florida, which has been hit hard by Hurricane Ian. She had joked earlier on the social media platform that she could retire early after learning that her husband had been the one to grab Judge’s historic home run.
She added another update later in the night that Buschmann was not forced to give the ball back and that he had told her that “the Judge and Maris family have been flying all over the country. They deserve to have that ball.”
Just a reporter doing work here… per my sources…
Matt Buschmann wasn’t forced to give the ball back but he handed it over to Zack Britton. @Busch26 told me:
“The Judge and Maris family have been flying all over the country. They deserve to have that ball.” #bluejays
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) September 29, 2022
