Father and Son Catch Each Dodgers Dwelling Run Balls in Sport 7 of World Collection — A As soon as-in-a-Lifetime Second at Rogers Centre – NBC Los Angeles
When the night time started at Rogers Centre, John Bains thought he’d be watching historical past — not holding it.
The 61-year-old from Brampton, Ontario, has been bleeding Blue Jays blue since 1977, when baseball first took root north of the border. He’s seen the highs, the heartbreaks, and the near-misses. However nothing — completely nothing — might have ready him for what occurred on that fateful Saturday night time throughout Sport 7 of the 2025 World Collection.
Within the prime of the ninth, with one out and the Dodgers clinging to their final breath, Miguel Rojas stepped into the field. Bains, and the opposite 44,713 Blue Jays followers in attendance believed the have been seconds away from watching historical past unfold, and a 32-year World Collection drought snapped.
The air contained in the dome hung thick with rigidity — like a held breath refusing to exhale. Rojas linked on a dangling slider by All-Star nearer Jeff Hoffman, and a pointy crack minimize by way of the silence. The ball soared towards left subject — a white comet tracing future’s line.
Bains didn’t flinch. He tracked it the entire manner, arms prolonged, coronary heart racing, he reached over the railing. Thwack. The ball landed squarely in his glove. Pandemonium erupted, however for John, it was surreal stillness — a frozen body in baseball eternity.
Cameras caught Bains throwing the house run ball again onto the sector because the shocked crowd went silent because the sheeted useless. However in actuality, Bains had a trick up his sleeve.
“I had a sense I might need to drag the change,” Bains advised Darren Rovell, laughing concerning the decoy baseball he’d tucked in his pocket, simply in case. Moments later, he tossed the odd ball again onto the sector — a magician’s sleight of hand to maintain a chunk of historical past.
For every other fan, catching one of the crucial vital dwelling run balls in baseball historical past is likely to be lucky sufficient. A ball like that, if bought at public sale, might change anybody’s life without end.
However destiny wasn’t completed.
Two innings later, within the eleventh, Dodgers catcher Will Smith despatched a towering drive arcing towards the identical part — the identical row — the identical household. The ball bounced off the Blue Jays bullpen floor and into the ready arms of John’s son, Matthew, who fumbled it on the bounce, the ball caroming off palms and seats earlier than discovering its manner again to him.
The stadium fell quiet as Smith rounded the bases. The Dodgers poured out of the dugout. And within the stands, a shocked father and son stared down at their palms — every holding a chunk of baseball immortality.
“I imply, what are the percentages?” Bains mentioned, shaking his head.
For a person who’s caught his fair proportion of postseason souvenirs — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. within the ALDS, Ernie Clement in the identical collection — this was otherworldly. Two game-changing dwelling runs, caught by the identical household, in the identical sport, from opposing sides of destiny.
Blended feelings? After all. The Blue Jays’ dream season had dissolved in actual time. But even amid heartbreak, there was an odd magnificence in it — a father and son sharing essentially the most unbelievable second of their lives, without end sure by two baseballs that modified all the things.
And an immigrant household whose lives and lineage simply modified without end.
Bains mentioned that he’s going to maintain the balls for now, MLB doesn’t authenticate baseballs that depart the sector of play, except they’re specifically marked. However that doesn’t cease an public sale home from authenticating the baseballs and promoting them to the best bidder on the open market.
Bains joked that he’d contemplate affords earlier than that occurs — “$1 million for the Rojas ball, $1.5 million for the Smith ball” — however deep down, he is aware of the true worth isn’t financial, however the reminiscences he simply shared along with his son. It’s one thing everlasting, one thing solely baseball can conjure: legacy, luck, and the cosmic symmetry of a sport that by no means stops stunning.
And someplace in Toronto, because the close by Rogers Centre sits empty, two baseballs now relaxation aspect by aspect contained in the Bains family— reminders that generally, the universe has the strangest humorousness.
