PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A Valley couple turned a ticket mix-up into a baseball story for the ages after catching home run balls on back-to-back nights at Chase Field, both hit by the same batter.
Allan and Mary Jane Johnson arrived at Chase Field Monday night for what they thought was a Giants-Diamondbacks game. They were a day early.
“We showed up and we had dinner and then we came all excited and went to go in and they wouldn’t work,” Mary Jane explained.
The couple discovered their tickets were for Tuesday night.
“And then that’s when the guy knows, oh, it’s Tuesday night and this is Monday night,” Mary Jane said.
Instead of going home, Allan suggested they stay. “I said, let’s just buy tickets.”
In the second inning, Giants shortstop Willy Adames sent a ball deep to left field. Allan tracked it and made the catch.
“It’s coming, and I get up like this, and it’s coming, and it’s curving, it’s curving, and I catch it right in the air,” Allan recalled.
Allan said he had to look down at his glove to believe the ball was there.
“Sure enough, man, that thing just went right in his glove. And he turned around and I was just jumping up and down,” Mary Jane recalled.
The Diamondbacks won that game 12-1.
The couple returned Tuesday night with their original tickets. Before the first pitch, they got the ball signed by Adames.
“Willie was really grateful and excited to sign it for us,” Allan said.
Then came the second inning again.
Adames hit another home run toward the bullpen. The ball ricocheted off the Sanderson Ford bullpen wall.
“My thought was, okay, yeah, he’s not going to catch this one,” Mary Jane said.
The ball found Allan’s glove again.
“And I got my club hanging down, and it goes, bink, bink, and I catch it. Just like that. And I’m like, I can’t believe it,” Allan said.
The odds of catching one home run ball are estimated at one in 18,000. Back-to-back nights puts the odds at roughly one in 324 million. Same player, same inning — those odds climb into the billions.
“It’s just so fun and so crazy,” Allan said.
Allan said the two baseballs are already getting special spots at home.
“It’s probably never going to happen again. You know, that’s a well. But I’m just, I’m happy that it’s happened,” Allan said.
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