We had a Henry Rowengartner type of situation happen this past Friday at Oracle Park in San Francisco. For the record, it wasn’t a kid in the center field bleachers who threw a ball on an absolute ROPE to home plate. NO! It was something a lot less impressive. It was something so idiotic, to the point where you hope the culprit was banned from the stadium after it happened.

It was, well…

Well that’s a first 😬 pic.twitter.com/yHtdJ6T2Ft

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 7, 2025

That’s right. In the top of the fourth inning of Friday’s game between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants, Braves C Sean Murphy was up to the plate with the bases loaded. He hit a rather weak liner to right field that was caught with ease by the Giants’ Mike Yastrzemski, who would end up rifling it back to home plate. The problem is, as the ball was bouncing it’s way through the infield, a second ball would end up falling from the heavens (the upper deck) in an attempt to break up the play at the plate.

Granted, with the poor throw from Yastrzemski……the second ball didn’t really do too much to make a difference in the play. Sure, you can argue that another baseball bouncing in front of the catcher distracted him, causing him to get to the “in play” baseball late. But in the grand scheme of things…..would the catcher have tagged Olson out at the plate? I don’t think so.

That’s not the issue here though. The issue that I have with this play, is the “intent” by the fan. This, my friends…..it wasn’t just “happen stance.” It wasn’t a “coincidence” that a ball would just magically drop from the heavens at that exact moment in the game. It was planned, it was calculated, and it was done with intent.

Sure, it could have been just some intoxicated Giants fan who wanted to preserve the shutout that his team was throwing. But as an avid gambler, and a member of the HIT online gambling show “Just The BetSlips,” I can tell you one thing…..those seemed like the actions of someone who had money on the game. Those seemed like the actions of someone who was sweating out a 6-leg parlay, who doesn’t have a firm grasp on the phrase “gamble responsibly.”

It was absolutely ridiculous, and as someone who had the Braves +1.5 on the run line in that game…..it made me visibly ill. Sure, the umps would’ve probably chalked it up as “fan interference” if it actually made a difference in the outcome. But just the blatant lack of concern by this individual for their fellow man is disgusting, and I hope they were banished from Giants games for all eternity.

But in the end, as always…..what do I know? I”m just a guy from the Midwest, with a beer and a laptop, trying to make sense of this world.