Longtime Seattle Mariners fan David Boardman was 2,700 miles away from Seattle, in Philadelphia, when he managed to “catch” a foul ball during a baseball game at T-Mobile Park. More precisely, his cardboard cutout caught a foul ball. Well, technically, his cutout didn’t catch a foul ball so much as it got hit by one.
In any event, through the magic of modern sports, that ball is on its way to Boardman.
Based on our basic knowledge of Major League Baseball’s Statcast technology, we assumed there was a high-tech system that enabled this precise tracking of foul balls hitting cardboard fans, just as it measures the distance and velocity of home runs. As we learned, the solution is actually very low tech. But it’s an interesting example of the efforts teams across various sports are making to keep fans engaged when they can’t fill stadiums in person. And there’s a great backstory to the “catch” by Boardman’s board.
Boardman is well-known in Seattle media and the larger community. He spent 30 years at The Seattle Times, retiring in 2013 as executive editor and vice president. He moved to Philadelphia to become dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University.
“I’m a lifelong baseball fan,” said Boardman, who has been to games at 35 Major League Baseball stadiums in his lifetime. “It’s a big passion, and I was a really rabid Mariners fan for many years and remain so — but it’s tough on the East Coast. … I often fall asleep listening to the Mariners games here.”
While he has co-adopted the Philadelphia Phillies, his true fandom was defined when he had to decide where his cardboard cutout would go.
“I wasn’t going to buy two of them,” he said of the $30 Seat Fleet promotion. “My wife and I both put on our Mariners jerseys and bought the cutouts, and I think we were among the earliest because we got two good seats right down the first base line.”
Of course, as any baseball fan will tell you, those good seats are also great for foul balls.
Boardman received an email on Sunday from Mandy Lincoln, the Mariners director of marketing, informing him that his cutout had “caught” a foul ball at T-Mobile Park this season. The Mariners FAQ about these cardboard fans defines a catch as any ball that hits the cutout on the fly. Foul balls and home runs are both mailed out.
“We have staff sitting in the seating bowl who keep an eye out for cutouts that are hit directly by a foul ball,” Lincoln told GeekWire. “They make note of the order number printed at the base of the cutout and relay that information so we can look up the name associated with the order and reach out to them with the good news that their cutout caught a foul ball.”
Lincoln said nearly 40 cutouts have caught a foul ball so far this season during home games. She said the Oakland A’s “fans” have to pay to sit in a specific section for foul balls, but she’s not sure what other MLB teams are doing.
“There isn’t anything else like it.”
Thank you to the fans for your love and support. ?
Join the #SeatFleet today ⏩ https://t.co/9zJuDL7O56 pic.twitter.com/4xSSMGhnTQ
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 20, 2020
Of the more than 14,000 cutouts ordered to date, more than 13,000 are currently seated in the stands at T-Mobile Park. Mariners Manager Scott Servais called the level of participation “pretty cool” in the tweeted video (above), and said it says a lot about the Mariners fan base.
Boardman said getting hit as a cardboard cutout differs greatly from the in-person experience he had 25 years ago.
“The last time I caught a foul ball, I caught it in the temple,” Boardman said, describing an incident at the Kingdome on Father’s Day in June 1995. Seated along the third base line with his wife and daughters, ages 5 and 8 at the time, Boardman saw the ball come off the bat of Minnesota Twins lefty first baseman Scott Stahoviak in the top of the first inning. He pulled his then-5-year-old to keep her from getting hit.
RELATED: I was a virtual NBA fan: What it’s like to cheer from the digital sidelines in Microsoft Teams
“The next thing you know, my head is crushed by this line drive,” Boardman said. “My doctor at the time said that if I were not an eye glasses wearer, I probably would have been dead. It really hit me right in that most vulnerable part of your forehead, but [the glasses] absorbed the shock.”
The ball bounced into the next section and Boardman did not end up with it. He ended up with a trip to Harborview Medical Center.
He remembers not being particularly impressed with the Mariners’ response back then. He said a Kingdome usher checked on him after he got hit, and he said he was fine, but his wife could see that he wasn’t fine, and they left for the hospital.
“I wrote a letter to the Mariners saying, ‘You know, this wasn’t probably the greatest follow-up that you could have done … as it turns out I had a serious concussion,” said Boardman, who missed a week of work at the time. “They sent me a ball autographed by my favorite Mariner, Edgar Martinez. So I was happy about that.”
Ushers are currently not working in the seating bowl at T-Mobile Park because of coronavirus. In normal times, they still check on fans who get hit or possibly hurt by a ball.
Even though he couldn’t extend his cardboard arms to catch it himself, whomever checked on Boardman this time around is making his day by getting the ball sent to him.
Still “True to the Blue” on the other side of the country, Boardman called the email from the team “a nice surprise.”
