A favorite among MLB hitters with warning-track power, notorious ballhawk Zack Hample has once again turned a potential out into a home run by reaching over the outfield wall and ostensibly interfering with play.
The latest incident took place Tuesday at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees spring training facility where the Rays are playing home games in 2025 after hurricanes damaged Tropicana Field.
With Tampa Bay’s Shane Baz on the mound, Los Angeles Angels second baseman Kyren Paris launched a deep fly to left center, where Hample easily reached over the wall and snagged the would-be out from Rays left fielder Christopher Morel.
Umpires went to video review, but didn’t find enough evidence of fan interference to overturn Paris’ third homer of the young season.
Unfortunately for the Rays, that proved to be the difference in the game as they fell, 4-3, to open their 13-game homestand.
Fans have traditionally fumed over Hample’s ability to turn potential outs into home runs.
Hample (in gray) had his mitt on in left-center field as Paris’ deep fly reached the wall
Zack Hample is pictured on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show back in 2008
‘I’m dead serious this dude needs to be banned for life,’ one critic wrote on X.
Another added: ‘its (sic) actually impressive how annoying this dude is.’
Others felt Morel simply whiffed on the ball at the warning track.
‘I hate Zack Hample as much as anybody but Morel literally jumped and missed the ball??’ one asked.
Many others declared Hample guilty of ‘fan interference,’ which is grounds for ejection under MLB rules.
Hample, 47, describes himself as a pro at catching home run balls. He’s written books about the art and has snagged thousands of baseballs at stadiums around the country.
In 2013, the Yankees season-ticket holder caught two home runs in a single game. And two years later, he was in the Bronx to catch Alex Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit – a home run to the right-field bleachers.
‘I looked down and the ball was at my feet,’ he told The Associated Press at the time. ‘It ricocheted, and it was almost touching my shoe.’
Hample did not immediately surrender that ball despite pleas from the Yankees organization, who had a much easier time retrieving Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit years earlier.
Hample poses for a photo with Alex Rodriguez #13 of the New York Yankees after giving Rodriguez the ball from his 3,000th hit at Yankee Stadium on July 3, 2015 in the Bronx
‘My intention all along, I’ve been imagining this scenario as a one-in-a-million, was not to give it back,’ Hample told reporters. ‘You know, just because the guy who got[Derek] Jeter’s 3,000th hit, a lot of people called him an idiot. A lot of people said that he was a wonderful person and extremely generous. And I really think that, whatever you want to do with it is your choice.
‘I think that someone like Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez, who has made half a billion dollars in his career, doesn’t really need a favor from a normal civilian and a fan like me. I don’t know right now if I’m going to sell it. I mean, depending on what the Yankees could offer, I would consider giving it back.
‘I’m not giving it back for — I don’t plan to give it back for a chance to meet him and full autographed bats because I don’t collect bats, I collect baseballs. Just having this ball is so meaningful to me. I can’t believe that I got it.’
Ultimately Hample gifted the ball to Rodriguez and the Yankees donated $150,000 to Pitch In For Baseball, a charity supported by the notorious ballhawk.
